Left-arm seamer Zaheer Khan dismissed openers Ashwell Prince for nought and skipper Graeme Smith for six in successive overs to reduce the tourists to six for two before Kallis orchestrated the recovery with his 34th Test hundred.
Zaheer, who took 15 wickets in the 2-0 series win over Bangladesh last month, had left-hander Prince caught behind with a wicked bouncer, although television replays suggested the ball came off the batsman’s arm guard.
The Indian spearhead bowled Smith through the gate with a beauty, squaring up the left-hander with a delivery that came in sharply, but the hosts enjoyed no further success as Kallis took control.
KALLIS MAGNIFICENT
Kallis, one of only eight batsmen to score over 10,000 Test runs, hit 13 fours and two sixes as he joined India’s Sunil Gavaskar and West Indian Brian Lara in third place on the list of most Test centuries.
Only India’s Sachin Tendulkar (45) and Australian Ricky Ponting (39) have scored more.
Kallis used his feet beautifully to the spinners and hit Harbhajan Singh and Amit Mishra for sixes, although it was his cover drive off medium-pacer Ishant Sharma that stood out for the sheer precision of the shot.
Amla batted conservatively before opening out to reach his eighth Test hundred, giving the South Africans the perfect platform as they seek a rare series victory in India to reclaim the number one Test ranking.
Amla hit 11 fours in his steady knock, surviving a chance to Murali Vijay at slip on 61.
India, already without experienced batsmen Rahul Dravid, Vangipurappu Laxman and Yuvraj Singh through injury, suffered a further blow when Rohit Sharma, called up as cover for Laxman, suffered an ankle injury in the warm-up.
Wicketkeeper-batsman Wriddhiman Saha was handed an unexpected debut and will join another debutant batsman, Subramaniam Badrinath, in an inexperienced middle order.
SCOREBOARD
South Africa first innings
G. Smith b Zaheer 6
A. Prince c Dhoni b Zaheer 0
H. Amla not out 115
J. Kallis not out 159
Extras (b-4 lb-2 nb-5) 11
Total (two wickets; 91 overs) 291
Fall of wickets: 1-5 2-6
To bat: AB de Villiers, JP Duminy, M. Boucher, P. Harris, D. Steyn, M. Morkel, W. Parnell.
Bowling: Zaheer 20-5-67-2 (nb-3), Ishant 17-2-44-0, Harbhajan 21-0-81-0, Mishra 26-2-71-0 (nb-2), Sehwag 7-1-22-0.
India: V. Sehwag, G. Gambhir, M. Vijay, S. Tendulkar, S. Badrinath, MS Dhoni, H. Singh, Z. Khan, I. Sharma, A. Mishra, W. Saha.
