Pornanong at joint 2nd in Adelaide

With four birdies against a lone bogey on the 16 th, Pornanong was tied at second along with American Lizette Salas (70), American Marissa Steen (71) and Caroline Hedwell of Sweden (69) with 8 under-par-138.

“It was a bit windy. I didn’t hit the ball close to the pins much today. I made some errors and some good putts. It was a good round overall,” said Pornanong who finished inside the too in her two previous events this year,

“I need to practise more on my short game for the weekend round. It will be windy according to weather forecast. I need to chip and putt well to shoot low scores.”

Smith shot a 6-under 67  and had a 36-hole total of 9-under 137.

"I'd be lying if I said I didn't think about it," Smith said of her chance to win her national championship. "Obviously, it would be a dream come true and something that every young Australian thinks about at some point. So to even be in this position right now is pretty exciting. I just need to control my nerves."

First-round leader Katherine Kirk was in a late share of the lead until she double-bogeyed the eighth hole, her second-last of the day. She was two strokes off the lead in a tie for sixth after a 74.

Salas said she recovered well during her round.

"I would be in trouble or miss an up-and-down, on the next hole I'd come right back with birdie," she said. "I gave myself a lot of opportunities for birdie and I'd miss them on the high side, so that's something that I could work on on the putting green."

Salas says she's "in a good place right now" as she looks forward to possibly representing the U.S. at the Solheim Cup.

"The past two years I've been kind of hoping to get better as the year went on," Salas said. "This year I really wanted to get a good start. Knowing it is a Solheim Cup year, so every tournament does count and I literally took no time off during the off season. It is a huge goal."