SENAI, Malaysia -- Malaysia got off to a flying start in the World Golf Championships-World Cup qualifier Thursday when Danny Chia and R. Nachimuthu combined for a sizzling 9-under-par 63 in the Four-Ball.

Chia, chasing his third World Cup appearance, contributed four birdies while debutant Nachimuthu had five birdies in his last 10 holes at Palm Resort Golf and Country Club.

The local duo lead by two shots over Taipei's Wang Ter-chang and Lu Wei-chih while a further shot back were Pakistan and Myanmar, which posted identical 66s.

The top three finishers on Sunday will earn places in November's World Cup in Spain.

"It's the start that we wanted. We both played well as a team and hit our irons well," said Nachimuthu. "We were aggressive on some holes and made some nice putts."

Chia and Nachimuthu enjoyed a run of five straight birdies in mid-round, thanks to Nachimuthu's 15-foot curler on the ninth that settled his early anxieties of trying to qualify for his first World Cup. Chia holed putts of 8 and 4 feet on the 10th and 11th holes before Nachimuthu's outstanding finish.

He holed a 15-foot birdie on the 12th and chipped in from the back of the green on No. 12. He wasn't done yet, though, draining a 20-footer on No. 16 and an 8-footer on the 17th.

"Tomorrow will be the key as it's Foursomes day," Chia said of the alternate-shot competition. "We'll be playing one ball and it's important to avoid the big numbers. You don't want to be over par tomorrow.”

The surprise was delivered by Pakistan, a country noted more for its cricket prowess than golf. With a domestic circuit that offers very little in total prize money -- U.S. $20,000 is the highest and U.S. $5,000 is the norm -- Matloob Ahmed and Muhammad Shabbir combined effectively to make seven birdies against a lone bogey.

"We're feeling good now, we're happy to be here," said 27-year-old Shabbir, the country's No. 1 for the past five years. "Golf is very small back home and there is little support from sponsors. We would like to play on the Asian Tour but we don't have the funds to travel.

"It'll be a dream come true if we can qualify for the World Cup. This is a great opportunity for us and we're going to try our hardest to do it.”

Soe Kyaw Naing was in top form for Myanmar with four birdies on the front nine while veteran Kyi Hla Han, Asia 's No. 1 in 1999, contributed three birdies. Their lone bogey came when Han three-putted the 14th.

"Soe had a good start and all his birdies were really close," Han said.

Han believes that the Foursomes Friday will separate the contenders from the pretenders. "You'd expect good scores today as it's Four-Ball,” he said. “Foursomes is a different ball game but we're comfortable together as our games are very similar."

Thailand, India, Korea, Finland and Switzerland all shot 67s to lie within striking distance of the leaders. Rahil Gangjee, winner of the Volkswagen Masters-China on the Asian Tour in May, needed a monster eagle putt at the 18th to haul India closer to the top.

"Amandeep (Johl) and I played average but we stuck in there. We had to save pars on 14 and 15 and got a huge break at the last when I holed a really long putt at the last which was about 25 yards. It was a good way to finish," said Gangjee.

Boonchu Ruangkit and Thaworn Wiratchant were not pleased with their 67.

"We could have shot lower," said Boonchu, currently ninth on the Asian Tour money ranking. "Thaworn putted really good today and we were quite relaxed out there as a combination.”

First round scores - Fourball 
63: Malaysia (Danny Chia, R.Nachimuthu) 
65: Chinese Taipei (Wan Ter-chang, Lu Wei-chih) 
66: Pakistan (Matloob Ahmed, Muhammad Shabbir), 
Myanmar (Kyi Hla Han, Soe Kyaw Naing) 
67: Switzerland (Marc Chatelain, Ronnie Zimmermann), 
Thailand (Boonchu Ruangkit, Thaworn Wiratchant), 
India (Rahil Gangjee, Amandeep Johl), 
Korea (Kim Dae-Sub, Shin Yong-jin), 
Finland (Jaakko Makitalo, Thomas Sundstrom) 
68: Holland (Neils Kraay, Guido Van Der Valk), 
Sri Lanka (Nandasena   Perera, Anura Rohana) 
70: China (Shang Lei, Xiao Jian-cheng) 
71: Singapore (Poh Eng Wah, M. Murugiah), 
Philippines (Angelo Que, Gerald Rosales), 
Hong Kong (Derek Fung, James Stewart) 
72: Guam (Mike Castro, Lon Lindsey), 
Mauritius (Billy Narraina, Vishnoo Seeneevassen) 
77: Fiji (Firoz Khan, Inoke Bolakoro)