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 World number seven Rose, who missed the cut on his one previous
appearance at Fanling in 2011, overcame his first bogey of the week
to fire five birdies and post a nine-under tally of 131 at the
European and Asian Tour event.
The 2013 U.S. Open champion was one clear of in-form Dane Lucas
Bjerregaard, who has three top 10 finishes in the last month and
also shot a 66 on Friday.
Joint overnight leader Lu Wei-chih of Taiwan was in a share of third
after a second-round 69 left him tied with Englishman Poulter on
seven-under.
Rose was wary of his compatriot, who was a last minute entry for the
tournament, fell outside of the top 50 in the world rankings on
Sunday and needed to play another European Tour event to preserve
his membership for next year.
"Poulter is a past champion is and he's on the leaderboard," Rose
said of the 2010 champion.
"He's always good when he's got something to prove, and he's
probably a dangerous guy now that he's outside the top 50 in the
world, and I know that he'll be desperate to get back in it.
"He always plays well when he has motivation, so he's obviously
going to be tough to beat too."
Poulter completed a mad dash from Florida on Wednesday after 2002
U.S. PGA Champion Rich Beem gave up his place in the field.
The Englishman showed no ill-effects of the long journey, lack of
practice and absence of his usual caddie to fire a 66.
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"I know this golf course. I've shot 60 around here before," said
Poulter, 12-times a winner on the European Tour.
"So albeit that I had not played a practice round but I've got good
memories on this golf course. I've had a couple of top fives in the
last five years around here as well. So I know the place, I like it,
and hopefully I can have a good weekend."
India's Anirban Lahiri was at six-under after a second 67 left him
tied fifth alongside 2009 U.S. PGA Champion Yang Yong-eun (66),
British Masters winner Matthew Fitzpatrick (67), Australian Nathan
Holman (66) and England's Matt Ford (65).
It wasn't such a good day for world number eight Dustin Johnson, who
could only muster a two-over 74 which left the American at one-over
and outside the cut mark.
(Writing by Patrick Johnston in Singapore; editing by Sudipto
Ganguly)
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