Rashid blitzes front nine to shoot 68 to be the best Indian at Sarawak

Two-time Asian Tour winner Rashid Khan added a second successive four-under 68 to emerge as the best-placed Indian at Tied-24th after the second round of the Sarawak Championship here on Friday.

Rashid moved his total to eight-under 136 at the Damai Golf and Country Club.

Four other Indians, Udayan Mane (68-69), Aman Raj (68-69), Ajeetesh Sandhu (67-70) and S Chikkarangappa (69-68) were Tied-28th, while Aadil Bedi (67-71) was T-40th in the low-scoring event.

Of the 17 Indians who started the week, nine made the cut.

The others making the cut were Shiv Kapur (70-69) in T-48, and Akshay Sharma (69-71) and Khalin Joshi (71-69) in T-62nd.

Viraj Madappa, Karandeep Kochhar, Gaurav Pratap Singh, Honey Baisoya, Abhijit Chadha, Veer Ahlawat, M Dharma and Chiragh Kumar missed the cut.

Thai rising star Jazz Janewattananond put himself in prime position for a fifth Asian Tour win after posting a solid eight-under 64 to grab a one-shot advantage.

Jazz, 23, who has already won twice this season, is 15-under-par 129. He hit 18 out of 18 greens and his total is one shot better than the 36-hole score recorded in the Sarawak Championship last year.

Philippines' Miguel Tabuena, who played alongside Jazz, also kept the blemishes off his card as he signed for a second straight 65 to share second place with Chinese Taipei's Hung Chien-yao (66) and Australian Andrew Dodt (64).

Rashid had a brilliant front nine with five birdies as he blitzed the first half in 31 but had one bogey and no birdies on the back nine in his 68.

Dodt, a two-time Asian Tour winner, got off to a sizzling start with an eagle on the 10th hole followed by four successive birdies from 11 before turning in 30.

The 33-year-old Australian is playing in his first event since suffering a two-month injury layoff in April.

Thai trio Pavit Tangkamolprasert, Danthai Boonma and Sadom Kaewkanjana shared fifth place on matching 133s following respective rounds of 65, 66 and 67 at the full-field event, which is celebrating its second edition on the Asian Tour this week.

The halfway cut was set at four-under-par 140 with a total of 72 players progressing into the weekend rounds.

The Sarawak Championship is supported by the Sarawak State government. It is also the Tour's second stop in Malaysia this season.