Michael Hoey hauled himself into contention at the weather-disrupted Indian Open to sit three shots off the clubhouse leader heading for the weekend.
The Ballymoney man matched his opening-round 71 in New Delhi on Friday to finish on two-under for the tournament.
Defending champion SSP Chawrasia surged to the top of the leaderboard before bad weather disrupted play for the second day in succession.
Chawrasia carded a flawless second round of 67 at DLF Golf and Country Club to finish on five-under and a shot ahead of England's David Horsey.
Taking his chance.@MikeHoeyNI had an invitation to play this week. He's made 11 birdies in 2 days to sit T5. pic.twitter.com/WhAHUJMoyP
— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) March 10, 2017
Play was then suspended for more than two and a half hours due to the threat of lightning, leaving 66 players to complete their second rounds on Saturday.
Italy's Matteo Manassero and England's Eddie Pepperell were three under par after seven and two holes of their rounds respectively.
Paul Dunne is two-over with eight holes of his second round completed.
"I'm very happy," said Kolkata-born Chawrasia, who missed from two feet for birdie on the ninth, his final hole of the day.
"The first day I was level par as I was a little bit scared as it's a new course and it's very tricky.
"It's tougher than Delhi GC (where he won 12 months ago), so I just focused on hitting it straight. The greens are tough. All the time, you need full concentration on every single shot.
"Last year I won, so I have lots of positivity. And now I'm leading so obviously I'm confident and I'm trying to win this tournament again. Hopefully I'll play good the next two days."
Horsey had three holes of his first round to complete on Friday and finished with two pars and a birdie for a superb 66, but then recorded three bogeys and a double bogey in a second round of 74.
"Towards the end I was getting a bit tired," he said. "I didn't sleep very well last night and it was an early start, up at half past four this morning.
"I'm a little bit disappointed with the finish, I left a few putts out there on the back nine. But still, I'm only one behind just now, that's not a bad position going into the weekend.
"I four-putted eight and missed a short one on nine, so I've wasted three or four shots there on the greens."
