South Africans continued to dominate the upper echelons of the leaderboard before bad weather forced the suspension of the Malaysian Open.
Otto and Kruger share the lead in Malaysia before suspension
South Africans continued to dominate the upper echelons of the leaderboard before the second round of the Maybank Malaysian Open was suspended because of bad weather on Friday.
Although overnight leader Charl Schwartzel fell away after a string of bogeys, compatriots Hennie Otto and Jbe Kruger produced impressive charges to take over at the head of affairs with Masters runner-up Louis Oosthuizen tucked in just behind them.
Otto fired a flawless 64 and Kruger a fine 65 as the pair posted the clubhouse target at nine-under-par.
Oosthuizen looked poised to join or even better his countrymen before thunderstorms forced the players off the course and, eventually, led to play being abandoned with 78 players still to complete their rounds.
Otto, who posted a 71 on Thursday, was in imperious form as he collected eight birdies whilst keeping a bogey off his card and finished particularly strongly as he picked up four strokes in his last six holes.
Kruger also carded eight birdies, his only blemish coming with a bogey at the par-five third.
Schwartzel drops back
For his part, Oosthuizen - who lost a dramatic play-off to Bubba Watson at the Masters last week - was alone in third on eight-under after 12 holes of his second round having picked up two birdies at the third and tenth.
Oosthuizen and Schwartzel made a 30-hour journey from the United States to Kuala Lumpur to take their place in the field and, while Schwartzel showed no ill-effects yesterday when he shot 64 to take the overnight lead, he laboured on Friday morning.
The 27-year-old carded three bogeys and one birdie on the front nine, and then also bogeyed the 11th shortly before play was suspended.
That left him four off the pace on five-under-par, two behind former world number one Martin Kaymer and American David Lipsky, who had both completed second-round 67s, and also Scotland's Stephen Gallacher who had seven holes of his round left to play.
Danny Willett was the best-placed Englishman on six-under after carding back-to-back rounds of 69 to sit alongside India's Jyoti Randhawa.
The Yorkshireman's round was highlighted by an eagle at the par-five fifth, as he also mixed three birdies with a pair of bogeys to ensure he will be well-placed for the weekend.
