KARACHI, July 26: Shabbir Iqbal fired an unblemished five-under 67 to grab a one-shot lead at the halfway stage of the CNS golf championship at the Karachi Golf Course Friday.

Shabbir, who carded 74 on the opening day, leads the duo of Amjad Yousuf and Shafiq Masih who were tied second at two-under 142 after 36 holes.

Amjad shot a three-under 69 but Shafiq found the going tough when he played a par after shooting two-under on the opening day.

Mohammad Tahir was in sole position at fourth at one-under 143 after a round of one-over 73 while Mohammad Siddique was another one stroke behind. Siddique recovered well from a poor three-over Thursday to notch up four birdies and a bogey at the par-four ninth to be at par.

Shabbir found the breezy and sunny conditions to his liking when he regularly found the fairways with his exquisite tee-shots. Except for a couple of occasions, he found the greens and the putts also didn’t let him down though he would regret missing at least three certain birdie opportunities.

Shabbir made a near-perfect start when he birdied the first two holes to get to even. After eight successive pars, the Islamabad-man birdied the par-three 11th, par-four 12th and par-five 14th to surge to three-under for the tournament.

Shabbir should have earned a stroke on the par-four 17th but the birdie putt brushed off the hole.

“It was a nice round under good playing conditions. These sort of performances do give the players the required confidence in the final stages. But the job is half complete and I know that others would be raring to go,” Shabbir said.

Amjad must be kicking himself for conceding a stage at the par-five 14th that left him tied at second place. But the golfer did well to drop a shot after his wild tee shot landed far away from the fairway and then the recovery shot found the bunker.

He had two birdies on the par-four fourth and par-three fifth before dropping a stroke on the par-four ninth — one of the most difficult holes of the day. He made birdies and a bogey in five eventful holes on his return.

Shafiq’s only error of the day was a double-bogey at the par-four sixth.

Scores after second round:

141 - Shabbir Iqbal 74 67

142 - Amjad Yousuf 73 69; Shafiq Masih 70 72

143 - Mohammad Tahir 70 73

144 - Mohammad Siddique 75 69

146 - Mohammad Akram 74 72; Akhtar Ali 74 72; Ansar Mahmood 73 73; Ahmad Saeed 72 74

147 - Javed Inayat 75 72

148 - Ghani Khan 76 72; Iqbal Bashir 76 72; Noor Baksh 75 73; Mohammad Munir 75 73; Nazir Khan 72 76

149 - Taj Nabi 78 71; Imdad Hussain 76 73; Matloob Ahmad 74 75

150 - Waheed Baloch 77 73; Abbas Ali 75 75

151 - Afzal Mohsin 78 73; Mohammad Irfan 78 73; Mohammad Akhtar 78 73; Abdul Jabbar 77 74; Fida Hussain 73 78.