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Cape Town: In conditions where the ball swung and seamed all day, South Africa would be pleased with a score of 232-4. Hashim Amla and Jacques Kallis struck fifties after MS Dhoni won the toss just for the second time in 15 matches.
A wicket in the final hour would have made it India's day but Jacques Kallis and Ashwell Prince took them to stumps with a confidence-boosting 68-run partnership.
Zaheer Khan dismissed Graeme Smith for the sixth time in Test cricket but India's standout performer was S Sreesanth who overcame a sloppy start to set up Amla with a bouncer and AB de Villiers with an out-swinger.
In chilly, overcast conditions and on a green-tinged pitch, India sometimes lacked the luck, and at other times the discipline, to push for more wickets. There were a handful of edges past the slips and the stumps, and India could have easily finished with a couple of wickets more.
With India on top, MS Dhoni baffled by not using a third slip, which saw Kallis and Ashwell Prince getting away with edges against Sreesanth and Zaheer. At the other end, Harbhajan Singh had an uneventful day, partially because of Dhoni's annoying tendency to allow the opposition easy singles playing with the spin.
After an interruption for bad light in the morning session, the sun came out in the evening. The forecast for the next four days is for clear skies. India would love this considering they'd batted in less than ideal batting conditions in Centurion and Durban.
In the morning, Zaheer trapped Smith LBW with an in-coming ball. Zaheer has worked out Smith to perfection. The South African captain has rarely understood if Zaheer is moving the ball in or out. Today, Zaheer had to wait till the fifth over to bowl to Smith, but only seven deliveries to get him out.
The first ball of their mini-battle was turned away through midwicket for two runs. Zaheer beat the bat once and kept mixing the in-coming ball with the out-swingers. It paid off when the third ball of the seventh cut in, going past Smith's bat and thudding into his pads in front of off-stump.
Ishant Sharma was tidy today, getting Alviro Petersen caught behind with a gentle out-swinger. Sreesanth operated under the 130s; in the evening his rhythm was upset by a wobbly run-up area which forced him to move his run a few inches to the left.
Brief scores
South Africa 232 for 4 (Kallis 81*, Amla 59)
