Keegan Petersen stood man alleen against Jasprit Bumrah and India’s bowling attack, as the Proteas scored 210 all out yesterday.
Entering Day Two on 17/1 after bowling out the visitors for 223, South Africa went to bed last night trailing by 70 runs and with India on 57/2 in their second innings.
Still very much in the game, South Africa have Petersen with his composed knock of 72 off 166 balls to thank for holding their innings together yesterday.
Things started to fall apart early on for the hosts, with opener Aiden Markram (8) leaving a Bumrah (5/42) delivery that cut back sharply to hit his off-stump.
Dit was ook nie lank nie and he was joined in the change room by nightwatchman Keshav Maharaj (25) after he was clean bowled by Umesh Yadav (2/64).
At 45/3, South Africa needed a big partnership and Rassie van der Dussen (21) joined Petersen in the middle, before he edged a Yadav delivery to second slip with the score on 112.
Temba Bavuma (28) and Kyle Verreynne (0) then lost their wickets in the same Mohammed Shami (2/39) over, as SA went from 112/3 to 159/6.
Petersen, who came in at 17/2 and also witnessed Marco Jansen (7) being clean bowled by Bumrah with the last ball before Tea, started to run out of partners. And he finally lost his wicket when he found the outside edge of a Bumrah delivery to make it 179/8.
After that, the tail wagged a bit for South Africa as they got to 210 all out - 13 short of India’s first innings total.
With an hour or so to play, India began their second innings and stretched their lead to 70 runs.
But the Proteas would have found some confidence at the end of the day, bagging the wickets of Mayank Agarwal (7) – caught by Dean Elgar at slip off Kagiso Rabada (1/25) and KL Rahul (10) – caught by Aiden Markram off the bowling of Marco Jansen (1/7).
Cheteshwar Pujara (9*) and Virat Kohli (14*) will resume India’s innings at 10.30am today.