"I've never been in this position before so it's going to be fun out there tomorrow," said Li, who is gunning for his second European Tour title. "Hopefully I can do my best out there and have some low scores.
"I just want to play by myself and play my game. I thought if I just stayed patient, I'll play good. So I just stayed patient all day."
Alexander Levy and Haydn Porteous were tied in third place at 17-under, a shot ahead of Andy Sullivan, who set the clubhouse target with a round of 63.
Early pace-setter David Horsey was then in sixth place on 15-under, ahead of a clutch of eight players by a single shot, including fellow Englishman Tyrell Hatton and South Africa's Dylan Frittelli.
McIlroy, who returned to complete his second round in the morning and started his third with a two-shot lead, was pleased with the fight he showed to shrug off bogeys on the fourth and eighth holes.
"I showed that even whenever I didn't have my best stuff today I was able to battle around and get in at a decent score. So hopefully I have a bit of a better game tomorrow," he said.
"The back nine's been good to me this week. I just need to figure out how to play the front a bit better."
(Reporting by Simon Jennings in Bengaluru, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
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