In-form Hashim Amla (114) and debutant Alviro Petersen (100) stroked centuries to put South Africa in control before Indian spearhead Zaheer Khan triggered a sensational collapse.
The tourists, 1-0 up in the two-match series between the world’s top-ranked teams, lost seven wickets in the final session to be struggling at 266 for nine at the close after being comfortably placed at 218-2 at one stage.
“As we know in test cricket, if you’re not getting wickets because the ball is doing a bit then you’ve got to build pressure,” India coach Gary Kirsten told reporters.
“Often the ball doesn’t always need to be doing something. When you can create the pressure by doing creative things like we did today, batsmen play very differently when they’re in a pressurised situation.”
Zaheer dismissed the two century-makers caught behind in quick succession either side of tea before spinner Harbhajan Singh also grabbed three quick wickets as he reached the 350-wicket mark at one of his favourite venues.
South Africa missed out on a series victory on the previous tour two years ago when, after winning the second test in Ahmedabad, India squared the series on an unpredictable pitch at Kanpur.
Harbhajan, who destroyed South Africa’s hopes in 2008 by claiming seven wickets in the final test, found the form that had eluded him for a while.
The off-spinner dismissed Jacques Kallis and then Ashwell Prince and JP Duminy lbw off successive deliveries to tear out the middle-order.
India must win this test to hold on to the number one test ranking.
Amla, who scored an unbeaten 253 in the opening-test victory, put on 209 for the second wicket with Petersen who was handed a debut after wicketkeeper Mark Boucher was ruled out with a back injury.
Petersen, only the third South African player to score a test century on debut after Andrew Hudson and Jacques Rudolph, said the tourists were still very much in the game.
“We can definitely bounce back,” he told reporters. “We saw (medium pacer Ishant) Sharma bowling a decent spell of short balls, when after 40 overs the ball was still carrying through, so I’d like to see our fast bowlers on that,” he said.
“It’s not a normal Indian wicket from what I understand of it. It’s also not that easy to bat on. There’s a lot of cricket still to be played.”
SCOREBOARD
South Africa won the toss and elected to bat first.
South Africa first innings
G. Smith b Zaheer 4
A. Petersen c Dhoni b Zaheer 100
H. Amla c Dhoni b Zaheer 114
J. Kallis c Laxman b Harbhajan 10
AB de Villiers run out 12
A.Prince lbw b Harbhajan 1
JP Duminy lbw b Harbhajan 0
D. Steyn lbw b Mishra 5
P. Harris c Dhoni b Ishant 1
W. Parnell not out 2
M. Morkel not out 3
Extras (b 1 lb 4 nb 9) 14
Total (nine wickets; 81 overs) 266
Fall of wickets: 1-9, 2-218 3-229 4-251 5-253 6-253 7-254 8-255 9-261.
Bowling (to date): Zaheer 21-5-77-3, Ishant 17-3-56-1 (nb 6), Mishra 20-3-68-1 (nb 3), Harbhajan 23-2-60-3.
India: V. Sehwag, G. Gambhir, M. Vijay, S. Tendulkar, V. Laxman, S. Badrinath, MS Dhoni, H. Singh, Z. Khan, I. Sharma, A. Mishra.
South Africa lead the two-match series 1-0.
