The 27-year-old, who fired 10 birdies in his impressive opening round, dropped just one shot for a 10-under 132 total to keep ahead of Australian Cameron Smith (66) and four clear of compatriot SSP Chowrasia (70) at third.
But despite the advantage, Lahiri, who is eyeing his second win on Tour this year, was disappointed with how he played in Friday's second round on the outskirts of the Malaysian capital.
"It's tough out there. You have to be consistent off the tee and keep yourself in play. If you miss the fairway, there's almost no control of the ball and every time I missed the fairway, I was always fighting to save par," he said.
"It was a bit of a struggle. I played well on the par fives and got myself into good positions and made a good putt on the last.
"I was overthinking today and had 100 things going on in my mind."
Lahiri is second on the Asian Tour Order of Merit behind American David Lipsky, who shot up the leaderboard with a 66 on Friday to sit tied ninth on four-under-par.
Play was delayed for a couple of hours on Friday because of heavy rains with a number of players unable to finish their second round before darkness fell.
Taiwan's Chan Yih-shin and Australian Chris Gaunt were among them with the duo both on five-under for the tournament with three holes remaining in their second round.
(Writing by Patrick Johnston in Singapore, editing by Sudipto Ganguly)
Share
