McIlroy had managed only eight holes on day one before a thunderstorm halted the action and on his return he birdied the 412-yard 11th and parred in for a one-under 70.

Quickly back onto the Sentosa course as the tournament tried to make up for lost time, the 23-year-old hit trouble on the back nine.

After a bogey on the demanding 12th, he double-bogeyed the 458-yard next and at two over was outside the projected halfway cut mark.

McIlroy came back with a birdie at the long 18th, however, and hit his approach to the 429-yard first to within three feet of the flag.

He missed the chance to make it a hat-trick of birdies on the short second, but with more lightning in the area the suspension came as he played the next and interrupted the event even earlier than it did yesterday.

The opening 65 by Thai golfer Nirat had given him a one-stroke lead over Dane Thomas Bjorn, but mixing two birdies with two bogeys at the start of his second round allowed Dyson to catch him.

The 34-year-old Englishman, four times a winner in Asia earlier in his career, has had a disappointing season and finds himself down at 63rd in the world, but birdied the 12th, 14th, 18th and first to go joint top.

Italians Francesco Molinari and Matteo Manassero were going well too when the stoppage came. Both had reached five under and so shared third place with Bjorn, who was in the other half of the draw and facing the prospect of not playing at all today.

Play resumed at 3:30pm local time after a delay of nearly two hours, but it was only for 15 minutes as another storm cell arrived.

McIlroy had time to birdie the 480-yard third, hitting another superb iron to three feet and moving to one under, but his final shot before the second suspension was a drive down the long fourth that was pulled left towards the hazard.

Dyson, meanwhile, found sand on the fifth and by failing to get up and down he slipped to five under and Nirat was alone in front.