Having bogeyed her closing hole, Smriti had to wait for an hour to find out if she had squeezed inside the cut.
She struggled on the front nine, bogeying four times in first six holes, on the first, third, fifth and sixth before she managed to steady herself.
Smriti then found her first and only birdie of the day on the 13th. She needed only to par the rest to comfortably make the cut, but the bogey on 18th gave her a lot of tension before she found herself in for the final round.
Thailand's Numa Gulyanamitta fired a 3-under 69 for a two-round total of 139 to snatch a one-stroke lead at the end of the second round. She is chased by France's Cassandra Kirkland (73-67) who shot the day's lowest score of 5-under 67 to total 140.
Numa qualified for the LPGA last year on first attempt and finished 15th on the US Women's Open last year.
In joint third place are Australia's Sarah Kemp and England's Holly Aitchison who had identical 141 total.
Tied at fifth spot are Felicity Johnson (England), Lu Yuxia (China), last week's winner at Suzhou-Taihu, Carlota Ciganda (Esp), round one leader Joanna Klatten (Fraca), Beth Allen (USA) and Elizabeth Bennette (England).
All of them had a total of 142.
