The first two days belonged to the unheralded Fisher however, as the 26 year-old held his nerve to master the Emirates course after missing the cut at the Abu Dhabi Championship two weeks ago.

Fisher, who is playing full-time on the European PGA Tour for only the second year, felt good about his game going into the weekend.

"I have only led a tournament once before at the 2005 China Open (before finishing equal fourth) and I haven't got over the hurdle so far but I feel so relaxed and comfortable here and hopefully I will learn," the long hitting Fisher said.

"I know deep down I am good enough and I feel at ease with my game and I know where I am going.

"The greens are rolling perfectly so there's not any doubt that I could go 65 again, maybe even lower if I keep bogey off my card."

Northern Ireland's Graeme McDowell is a further two strokes behind Els on 10 under along with Swedes Peter Hanson and Henrik Stenson, with the latter also yet to finish his second round with four holes still to play.

Stenson, Els and 55 other players will have to come back early on Saturday to finish off their rounds due to fading light on Friday resulting in play being called for the day.

Tiger stalks leaders

Defending champion Tiger Woods finished on nine-under, five shots off the lead [AFP]

"I feel room for improvement out there," Woods said.

"Didn't drive it very good early, but I fixed that coming in.

"My distance control of my irons wasn't all that great and I didn't make any putts.

"I was all around the hole and most of them were actually misreads. It was kind of wierd," the world number one added.

Paul Casey, winner in Abu Dhabi two weeks ago, safely made the cut at six-under, however out-of-form Spaniard Sergio Garcia looks like missing the weekend's play after finishing on one-under, with three-under par being the likely score required to make the cut.