Munaf Patel in action against Delhi in Vadodara on Thursday

Vadodara: The dead track suddenly sprang to life on Thursday as Munaf Patel knocked the daylights out of Delhi with a fiery four-wicket haul to help Rest of India seize the initiative on the second day of the Irani Trophy here.

Munaf and his fellow bowlers used the seemingly docile track at the IPCL Stadium well to skittle out the entire Delhi side for a paltry 177 in two sessions, gaining a vital 75-run first-innings lead.

At close, Rahul Dravid and S. Badrinath were in the middle, having guided Rest of India to 99 for one, stretching the overall lead to a healthy 174.

In their second essay, too, Rest of India got off to a sedate start but opener Wasim Jaffer once again failed to convert the start into a big one and fell to Pradeep Sangwan.

Fellow India hopeful Badrinath, however, decided to make the most of the opportunity and once he survived a couple of strong LBW appeals, the youngster got into the groove with some attractive drives. Dravid, on the other hand, was happy to deal in ones and twos.

Earlier, resuming on the overnight score of 21 without loss, Delhi suffered an early setback when Gautam Gambhir poked at a Zaheer Khan delivery and perished to the slip off the seventh ball of the day. But with Aakash Chopra and Virender Sehwag on song, it looked like a mere glitch, which Delhi would easily put behind.

Aakash, who somehow never manages to convince the national selectors despite tonnes of runs, looked good for a big knock and scored at a healthy rate, too. Matching Sehwag shot for shot is no mean achievement.

A breathtaking straight drive and an immaculate square drive in a Zaheer over and then a pull off R.P. Singh raced to the ropes, but the half-century that seemed imminent for Aakash never really came as he nibbled at a Munaf delivery and Mohammed Kaif took a spectacular one-handed catch at second slip.

Having tasted success, Munaf started breathing fire and got rid of Virat Kohli with a rising delivery which the youngster could only glide to Mahendra Singh Dhoni behind the stumps.

Sehwag decided offence is the best defence and stepped out to hit Anil Kumble over the sightscreen for the first six of the match. He then uppishly pierced the mid-wicket and mid-on for four, but, like Aakash, fell before completing his half-century.

He reached out to glide a Kumble delivery, and Dravid took a brilliant catch at slip to send Sehwag back.

What followed was a sad procession of Delhi batsmen back to the pavilion. Mithun Manhas became Munaf’s third victim and though Puneet Bisht (28) and Rajat Bhatia (17) continued their resistance in the post-lunch session, it was beyond them to do what their top-order colleagues could not.