The afternoon had turned windy by the time C Muniyappa finished his second round and Adam Blyth began his, but the change in direction came only later in the evening.

Muniyappa, building on his six-under from the first round, shot a balanced three-under 69 on Friday, confirming his clubhouse lead as the position he would be taking into the third day of the Indian Open after overnight leader Blyth saw a pretty remarkable meltdown over his back nine. By the time he had finished his first nine holes, Blyth was three-under for the day and looking like he was going to pull way ahead of the field. On the return journey, he undid all of that, playing three-over par to finish level for the day.

The two ended Friday with an exchange of positions on the leaderboard from the first day; luckily for the Australian, the difference is of just one shot. Muniyappa shares the top spot with Korean Lee Sung, who kept the errors down and shot a two-under 70 to aggregate nine-under 135. Blyth, along with an injured Digvijay Singh, is tied for third.

In unusually understated white, Muniyappa, newly at home on the Asian Tour, started on the 10th and overshot the green with his third shot on the par-five 14th to start with what could have been a disappointing bogey. He refused to let it affect him though, picking back the shot on the very next hole with a long birdie putt. He went under-par for the round with another birdie on the 16th , and just missed a third straight one with a slightly edgy putt on the 17th.

... contd.