Tied for the overnight lead after an opening 67, the 36-year-old once again gave a solid display by reeling off four birdies on the back nine to go eight under for the tournament.

Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell, seeking a first European Tour victory in three and a half years following his 2004 triumph at the Italia Open, carded a second consecutive three-under-par 69 to sit two shots adrift of McGrane.

McGrane, who played in Dubai last week — with world number one Tiger Woods — moved onto eight under-par with a second round 69 to head into the weekend clear of McDowell, South Africa’s Hendrik Buhrmann and Frenchman Raphael Jacquelin, who also recorded back-to-back 69s.

McDowell dubbed leader McGrane a “dogged competitor” and admitted he was not surprised to see the Irishman at the top of the leaderboard courtesy of his “great” short game.

“I would like to try and do the same thing day-in day-out,” said McGrane.

“I found a formula around the course that seems to be giving me good numbers, so I will try and hit the same clubs off the tee box and give myself as many birdie chances as possible.”

McDowell spent two years playing on the PGA Tour in America after accepting a golf scholarship, where he won the Haskins Award for most outstanding collegiate golfer in 2002.

A year earlier he had been part of the victorious Great Britain & Ireland team in the Palmer Cup, a tournament which pits American college golfers against their European counterparts before he tasted Walker Cup (2001), Seve Trophy (2005) and Royal Trophy (2006) success.

And after ending 2007 with two top-six finishes at the Volvo Masters and Hong Kong Open, McDowell made a steady start to 2008 and worked his way up to fifth place last week in Dubai, and is confident his start to the year will see him return to the world’s top 50 and put him in contention for a Ryder Cup berth.

“I want to end the year in the top 50. I’m off to a decent start. I made a good impact in Dubai last week,” said McDowell, who is reaping the rewards of a fitness regime he started last September.

“Top 50 is where things start to happen. If I could break that barrier again and start getting myself into majors and WGCs, that’s where you can start to make consistency pay,” he added.

“I don’t think my world ranking reflects how far I think I’ve come in the last 18 months, I think my game has turned around a lot. I’ve been working very hard and want to make an impact on the world rankings.”

McDowell’s form has received a stern test in Delhi this week on the tight tree-lined course which demands short iron play in contrast to the booming drives which are now common place.

“I really have been trying to slow myself down, patience is the key word this week. You can’t get frustrated because the second you try and push that’s when you find yourself in trouble. It’s a course which tests completely different aspects of your game, it’s as far from a physical test as possible,” added McDowell.

“I think mental strength is one of my strengths as far as being patient and finding fairways and my short game has been improving.”

Sweden’s Mickael Lundberg (68) sits alone in fifth at five-under, with Dane Thomas Bjorn (72) and Benn Barham (71) leading a group a further shot adrift.

Darren Clarke (69) used a chip-in eagle at the 18th to propel himself into a group at three-under, while world number four Ernie Els carded a second round two-under-par 70 to beat the cut by three strokes.