Indian golfer Shubhankar Sharma found two birdies in his last three holes to card a two-under 69 which placed him Tied-second at the Italian Open, though the second round was yet to compete, here on Friday.
The 23-year-old Sharma, a two-time winner on the European Tour, is now seven-under though almost half the field was yet to finish their second round at the Olgiata Golf Club.
Sharma had six birdies with two dropped shots and a double bogey for a 69. At seven-under he was two shy of the leader Joachim Hansen (67-66).
SSP Chawrasia, who shot three-over 74 in the first round was fighting back and was four-under through 10 holes. He was now inside the cut line which looked likely at Par.
Gaganjeet Bhullar however was likely to exit early as he was three-over through nine holes in second round after a first round of 74 to get to a total of six-over.
Sharma was in some very high quality company in the shared second place alongside former US Open winner and Olympic gold medallist, Justin Rose (66-69) and former World Cup winner, Rory Sabbatini (66-70).
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Matthew Fitzpatick was three-under through nine holes on second day and a total of seven-under with nine holes to play.
Sharma, who started from the 10th, bogeyed the 11th but fought back with birdies on 13th, 15th and the 17th. He was then hit by a double on 18th to fall back to even par for the day.
A bogey on third pushed him over par, but birdies on fourth, seventh and ninth meant he was back in business at two-under for the day and seven-under for 36 holes.
Joachim Hansen, Tied-fourth last week at the Open de Espaa, carried his fine form with a five under par round on Friday to add to his opening round 67 to get a total of nine under par to take lead.
World Number 5 Rose looked set to join Hansen at the top until a double bogey at the eighth, his penultimate hole, hit him hard to drop back to seven under alongside Sharma and Slovakian Sabbatini (70).
Overnight leader, Tapio Pulkkanen was one-over through 10 with four bogeys against three birdies and fell to Tied-sixth with eight holes to play.
Kurt Kitayama was even through 10 after shooting 66 on first day, while Kiradech Aphibarnrat (69-75) was likely to miss the cut at two-over.