Darrren Clarke raised hopes of a third Irish winner on the European Tour this season after a second round 69 left him just one shot off the Asian Open lead.
On four-under, Clarke is within striking distance of halfway pacesetters Robert-Jan Derksen and Zhang Lian-wei.
Clarke, bidding to join Graeme McDowell and Damien McGrane in the winner's circle, believes he is starting to the see the benefit of improvements he has made to his putting technique.
Starting on the back nine, Clarke birdied the par-four 11th and then made par on the rest to reach the turn at one under par. He bogeyed the par-five sixth but then finished strongly with three birdies to ensure he is in contention for the weekend.
In a bid to improve his putting, Clarke has been working with an alignment specialist in recent weeks and early signs in his two rounds in Shanghai indicate he is seeing an improvement.
"I haven't holed all that well before but 29 putts yesterday and 29 today is a lot better than the 32 or 33 I have been averaging this year," said Clarke. "I worked with a guy last week on my alignment and it feels a lot better so hopefully I can keep doing it and holing a lot more."
Clarke has endured mixed results on the European Tour circuit this season, finishing as high as third at the South African Airways Open but also as low as 112th at the Open de Andalucia. But the 39-year-old believes he has found encouragement in the way things in his game have improved and hopes he can hit form this weekend.
"It has been a difficult time as I have not been playing as well as I would have liked to have done," added Clarke. "But I am very pleased with the things I am working on. I have been working on my posture in the gym and things feel they are starting to click together.
"They have been close for some time but not quite doing it so hopefully I can go out at the weekend and keep playing the way I know I can play."
Miles Tunnicliff is joint third alongside first-round leader Peter O'Malley after the Englishman carded three birdies and one bogey for a two-under-par 70 and three under overall.
Defending champion Raphael Jacquelin struggled once again to all-but end his chances of retaining his title after carding a two-over 74 and is three over par overall.
Clarke will be joined by Peter Lawrie, Rory McIlroy and Gary Murphy over the weekend but the trio have ground to make up if they are to mount a serious challenge.
McIlroy and Lawrie both lie two-over, with Muprhy a shot further back, one inside the cut mark.
After strolling to a nine-shot victory in last week's China Open, McGrane is going to miss the weekend action after a second 75 left him on six-over. McDowell also missed the cut.
Collated Scores (Irish & British unless stated)
139 Robert Jan Derksen (Ned) 70 69, Lian-Wei Zhang (Chn) 70 69
140 Darren Clarke 71 69
141 Miles Tunnicliff 71 70, Peter O'Malley (Aus) 67 74
142 Retief Goosen (Rsa) 72 70, Oliver Wilson 68 74, Wen-chong Liang (Chn) 71 71, Wen-Tang Lin (Tai) 71 71, Mark Brown (Nzl) 75 67, Mu Hu (Chn) 73 69
143 Scott Hend (Aus) 69 74, Robert Dinwiddie 70 73, Marcus Fraser (Aus) 70 73, Chao Li (Chn) 71 72
144 Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind) 68 76, Mikael Lundberg (Swe) 73 71, Michael Lorenzo-Vera (Fra) 75 69, Mikko Ilonen (Fin) 68 76, Martin Kaymer (Ger) 72 72, Chris Rodgers 71 73, Greg Norman (Aus) 71 73, Paul Broadhurst 71 73, Jose-Filipe Lima (Por) 70 74, Carl Suneson (Spa) 71 73, Jean-Francois Lucquin (Fra) 74 70, Henrik Stenson (Swe) 68 76, Adam Blyth (Aus) 74 70
145 Young-Woo Nam (Kor) 72 73, Ross Fisher 72 73, Peter Hedblom (Swe) 72 73, Shiv Shankar Prasad Chowrasia (Ind) 72 73, Julio Zapata (Arg) 73 72, Simon Wakefield 73 72, Iain Steel (Mal) 71 74, Richard Lee (Can) 70 75, Barry Lane 74 71, Ross McGowan 71 74
146 Francesco Molinari (Ita) 71 75, Wei Chih Lu (Tha) 75 71, David Gleeson (Aus) 73 73, Shiv Kapur (Ind) 71 75, Joost Luiten (Ned) 71 75, Scott Strange (Aus) 71 75, Phillip Price 73 73, John Bickerton 71 75, Peter Lawrie 72 74, Rory McIlroy 73 73, Scott Barr (Aus) 72 74, Hendrik Buhrmann (Rsa) 71 75, Wook-Soon Kang (Kor) 74 72, Digvijay Singh (Ind) 74 72
147 Jean-Baptiste Gonnet (Fra) 75 72, Michael Campbell (Nzl) 71 76, Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 74 73, Simon Yates 74 73, David Frost (Rsa) 72 75, Mong-nan Hsu (Tpe) 73 74, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 73 74, Mardan Mamat (Sin) 73 74, Gary Murphy 74 73, Marcus Both (Aus) 73 74, Richard Finch 72 75, Paul Lawrie 75 72, Keith Horne (Rsa) 77 70, Sam Little 71 76
----------------------------- Missed the cut------------------------------
148 Rahil Gangjee (Ind) 73 75, Antonio Lascuna (Phi) 72 76, Gaurav Ghei (Ind) 74 74, David Howell 75 73, Terry Pilkadaris (Aus) 74 74, Kane Webber (USA) 74 74, Iain Pyman 75 73, Stephen Scahill (Nzl) 79 69, Prayad Marksaeng (Tha) 74 74, Hao Yuan (Chn) 74 74, Fabrizio Zanotti (Par) 77 71, David Bransdon (Aus) 74 74, Angelo Que (Phi) 73 75, Keng-chi Lin (Tai) 73 75, Jyoti Randhawa (Ind) 75 73
149 Wen-zhang Yang (Chn) 75 74, Christian Cevaer (Fra) 74 75, Garry Houston 75 74, Zane Scotland (Gbr) 75 74, Zaw Moe (Kor) 72 77, Thaworn Wiratchant (Tha) 74 75, Chen chih Chiang (Tpe) 77 72, Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) 71 78, Jason Knutzon (USA) 73 76, Sam Walker 73 76, Sung Lee (Kor) 72 77, Juvic Pagunsan (Phi) 74 75, Thomas Bjorn (Den) 74 75, Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa) 72 77, Markus Brier (Aut) 75 74
150 Damien McGrane 75 75, Airil Rizman (Mal) 77 73, Magnus Carlsson (Swe) 73 77, Graeme McDowell 74 76, Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa) 73 77, Stuart Manley 75 75, Oliver Fisher 74 76, Daniel Vancsik (Arg) 75 75, Anthony Kang (USA) 75 75, Gerald Rosales (Phi) 72 78, Sang-moon Bae (Kor) 76 74, Ted Oh (Kor) 77 73, Danny Chia (Mal) 70 80, Peter Fowler (Aus) 76 74
151 Bryan Saltus (USA) 76 75, Prom Meesawat (Tha) 73 78, Seung-yul Noh (Kor) 75 76, Andrew Coltart 71 80, Zhi-Feng Qiu (Tpe) 73 78, Scott Drummond 72 79, Adam Groom (Aus) 75 76
152 Ter-Chang Wang (Tpe) 75 77, Peter Whiteford 74 78, Jarmo Sandelin (Swe) 75 77, Marcel Siem (Ger) 75 77, Pelle Edberg (Swe) 75 77, Unho Park (Aus) 75 77, Carlos Rodiles (Spa) 76 76, Anda Liu (Chn) 76 76, Wen Teh Lu (Tpe) 74 78, Anthony Wall 78 74, Gary Simpson (Aus) 75 77, Amandeep Johl (Ind) 78 74, Chapchai Nirat (Tha) 74 78
153 Frankie Minoza (Phi) 75 78, Thammanoon Srirot (Tha) 79 74, Tom Whitehouse 74 79, Chinarat Phadungsil (Tha) 76 77
155 Gui Ming Liao (Chn) 74 81, Chawalit Plaphol (Tha) 78 77, Gavin Flint (Aus) 78 77, Xiao-ma Chen (Chn) 80 75
156 Sven Struver (Ger) 74 82, Rick Kulacz (Aus) 77 79, Artemio-hiromasa Murakami (Phi) 76 80, Jong Yul Suk (Kor) 76 80, Kangchun Wu (Chn) 78 78, Simon Hurd 78 78
157 Tony Carolan (Aus) 77 80
159 Wei-Huang Wu (Tpe) 78 81, Wen-gen Zheng (Hkg) 81 78, Ross Bain 79 80
160 Ming Jie Huang (Chn) 75 85
161 Simon Griffiths 78 83, Lei Shang (Tpe) 84 77
164 Yong-hong Deng (Chn) 82 82, Ming-hao Wang (Chn) 79 85
166 Xiong-hui Ye (Chn) 80 86
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