Australian Adam Blyth put himself into position to record his first win on either the European or Asian Tour after carding a six-under-par 66 to take a narrow lead into the final round of the Maybank Malaysian Open.

Blyth missed an opportunity to play in Saturday's final group after finishing with a double bogey in his second round but he bounced back superbly with an eagle and six birdies on Saujana Golf and Country Club's Palm Course to storm to the top of the leaderboard.

The 27-year-old moved to 14 under through 54 holes to hold a one-shot advantage over Alexander Noren of Sweden (69) and China's Liang Wen-chong (67) in the event which is co-sanctioned by the European and Asian Tours.

Ireland's Peter Lawrie and Gareth Maybin are five shots off Blyth's lead on nine under.

"I'm very happy," said Blyth, from Brisbane. "At the start of the day, you always want to have a chance. That was the goal and I managed to get into that position, so it's good."

Miles Tunnicliff recorded the day's best round with a nine under 63 to join American Anthony Kang (64) and Prayad Marksaeng of Thailand (65) in a tie for fourth on 12 under.

Overnight leader Danny Chia of Malaysia struggled with a two over 74 which dropped him back into a tie for seventh with Shiv Kapur of India (66) on 11 under.

Blyth, who has not recorded a victory in five seasons on the Asian Tour, trailed Chia by five strokes after a double bogey on his final hole on Friday when his ball bounced off a tree and went out of bounds.

But he shrugged off that misfortune and steadily climbed up the leaderboard with birdies on the first, fourth and seventh to move to 11 under at the turn.

He bogeyed the tricky par-four eighth but consecutive birdies on the 10th and 11th and an eagle on the 13th saw him jump ahead of Noren into first place.

"I had 165 metres into the 13th and it was a bit downwind. I hit an eight iron into about eight feet and made the eagle which was nice," said Blyth, whose father, Stephen, is his caddie.

He improved to 15 under with a birdie on the 16th but bogeyed the next to end the day on 14 under par.

"I wanted to just go out and give it my best and see what the result is," he added. "So far, it's good and I'll go out there tomorrow and try to continue that to see what the end result is."

Noren began the day on 10 under, three shots off the lead but moved ahead of Chia to the top of the leaderboard with birdies on the third, fourth and eighth.

The Swede kept pace with Blyth with his fourth birdie of the round on the 13th but dropped to 12 under following bogeys on the 15th and 17th.

However, he holed a 30-footer for birdie at the last to draw level with Liang and remain within touching distance of Blyth.

"I played pretty well on the front nine and should have probably picked up one other shot," said Noren.

"On the back nine, it was tougher, maybe because the other two guys had started to play a bit better and came back at me and suddenly my score didn't seem as good.

"But I really wanted to get myself into the last group and I managed to do that with my putt on 18 so I'm happy."

Tunnicliff charged up the leaderboard after firing nine birdies in his bogey-free round of 63, which put him in contention for only his third win on the European Tour and first since the 2004 Diageo Championship at Gleneagles.

Having missed the cut in all four of his previous starts on the European Tour this season, the Englishman was naturally delighted with his third-round effort.

"I enjoyed that! It is the first time in a long time that it has come together so nicely," he said.

"I was struggling for the first three weeks of the year in the desert so I took a week's break in Dubai with the family and didn't touch a golf club. I just chilled out for the week and it seems to have worked because I came here a lot more excited about playing again.

"Today I just hit a lot of good shots and the putts dropped in when I needed them to."

Collated third round scores (Gbr & Irl unless stated, par 72):

202 Adam Blyth (Aus) 66 70 66

203 Alexander Noren (Swe) 63 71 69, Wen-chong Liang (Chn) 65 71 67

204 Anthony Kang (USA) 74 66 64, Prayad Marksaeng (Tha) 69 70 65, Miles Tunnicliff 71 70 63

205 Shiv Kapur (Ind) 70 69 66, Danny Chia (Mal) 66 65 74

206 Seung-yul Noh (Kor) 62 73 71, Jyoti Randhawa (Ind) 71 69 66

207 Gareth Maybin 69 69 69, Simon Griffiths 70 66 71, Peter Lawrie 72 68 67

208 Scott Barr (Aus) 71 67 70, David Horsey 71 68 69, Nick Dougherty 66 70 72, Phillip Archer 69 69 70, Stephen Leaney (Aus) 70 69 69, Johan Edfors (Swe) 69 71 68

209 Mikael Lundberg (Swe) 68 73 68, Wei Chih Lu (Tha) 72 71 66, Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa) 70 71 68

210 Juvic Pagunsan (Phi) 67 73 70, Darren Beck (Aus) 71 69 70, Maarten Lafeber (Ned) 73 68 69, Simon Dyson 71 66 73, James Kamte (Rsa) 70 72 68, Marcus Fraser (Aus) 72 67 71, Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) 69 72 69

211 Hendrik Buhrmann (Rsa) 70 71 70, Martin Erlandsson (Swe) 73 68 70, Jean-Francois Lucquin (Fra) 65 72 74, Pelle Edberg (Swe) 75 67 69, Mark Foster 69 71 71, Shingo Katayama (Jpn) 69 71 71, Ross McGowan 70 70 71

212 Prom Meesawat (Tha) 70 69 73, Richard Finch 70 71 71, Angelo Que (Phi) 73 70 69, Rafael Cabrera Bello (Spa) 70 72 70, Klas Eriksson (Swe) 68 75 69, Jose Manuel Lara (Spa) 68 74 70

213 Anton Haig (Rsa) 71 70 72, Kodai Ichihara (Jpn) 69 73 71, Supramaniam Sivachandran (Mal) 72 70 71, Chapchai Nirat (Tha) 71 72 70, Oliver Fisher 69 70 74

214 Wil Besseling (Ned) 74 67 73, Frankie Minoza (Phi) 72 70 72, Anthony Kim (USA) 78 65 71, Mitchell Brown (Aus) 68 72 74, Marcel Siem (Ger) 70 73 71, David Bransdon (Aus) 72 68 74, Simon Khan 70 72 72, Jason Knutzon (USA) 70 73 71

215 Jarmo Sandelin (Swe) 70 73 72, Ignacio Garrido (Spa) 71 71 73, Ross Bain 68 75 72

216 Tony Carolan (Aus) 70 72 74, Marciano Pucay (Phi) 69 70 77, Chris Rodgers 74 69 73, Gavin Flint (Aus) 72 71 73, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 74 69 73

217 Scott Hend (Aus) 73 70 74, David Gleeson (Aus) 72 71 74, Sam Little 74 69 74, Kyung-Tae Kim (Kor) 72 71 74

218 Robert Rock 73 67 78, Shaaban Hussin (Mal) 71 72 75, David Frost (Rsa) 70 70 78, Shiv Shankar Prasad Chowrasia (Ind) 69 74 75

219 Neven Basic (Aus) 75 68 76

220 Rhys Davies 67 76 77

221 Chawalit Plaphol (Tha) 69 74 78