Scorecard

Led by a great spell of fast bowling from S Sreesanth, India reduced South Africa to 192 for six at lunch in their second innings against India on the fourth day of the second Test in Durban on Friday.

Resuming at 64 for no loss, South Africa lost five wickets in the session, with Sreesanth claiming three of them.

AB de Villiers was the first wicket when he was caught in the slips off VRV Singh for 47 after putting on 99 runs for the opening wicket.

Graeme Smith ended his torrid spell with a fine half-century before he was bowled by Sreesanth for 58.

Hashim Amla (0), Herschelle Gibbs (9), Ashwell Prince (0) and Mark Boucher (8) could not contribute much as South Africa were reduced to 143 for 6 at one stage.

Shaun Pollock (18 not out) and Andrew Hall (20 not out) restored some parity with an unbeaten stand of 49 runs for the seventh wicket.

Sreesanth stole the show in the morning session, claiming 3 for 53 in his 15 overs.

Morning session:

The joys of Test cricket -- the ebbs, the flows, the completely unexpected twists to the tale -- were on full display on the morning of the fourth day of the second Test in Kingsmead.

South Africa came out bristling with intent; Graeme Smith led the way, fluidly working Zaheer Khan off his hips for the first boundary of the morning, soon after Sreesanth had finished his over from last evening.

From then on, runs came thick and fast. AB de Villiers edged first Sreesanth, then Zaheer, through the slip cordon for fours, then showed he could play more conventionally with a flowing drive through the covers also off Zaheer. Smith, meanwhile, was particularly severe on the short stuff, cutting and pulling fiercely as he batted himself back into ominous touch.

It seemed at the time that the Indian bowlers were rapidly losing the plot. Perfectly placed deliveries continued to turn both batsmen inside out, but interspersed with those were gimme balls that released the pressure and allowed the score to mount, worryingly through boundaries.

With the sun out and the helpful overcast gone AWOL, it appeared increasingly as though the home side had taken a winning grip on the game. Wickets were intact, runs were flowing smoothly without overt effort, and a platform was being erected for a possible frenzy post-lunch.

And then, the game swung on its axis. In the 29th over of the innings, de Villiers elegantly upper cut VRV Singh's bouncer over the slip cordon for a four. Two deliveries later, a length ball on off held its line long enough to get the batsman pushing at it, then moved just enough off the seam to find the edge. Laxman, at slip, lunged forward and low to hold a superb catch (48/100; 99/1; SA one run shy of what could have been the first ever century partnership of this tour, by either side).

The dismissal also produced a glimpse into how modern cricket is played: de Villiers glanced at Laxman, the fielder smiled and nodded to indicate he had taken it clean, and the batsman started to walk. Smith stopped him in his tracks; the batsman then waited while the umpires went upstairs to confirm the catch was clean.

From then on, the action became frenzied. Sreesanth began the 30th over with a short ball that Smith pulled ferociously to bring up his 50 (77 balls, 9 fours); he celebrated by cutting the next ball, short and wide of his off-stump, with immense power.

A ball later, the bowler appeared to lose his confidence, as he indicated by losing his run up. He walked very slowly back to his mark; he took the devil's own time to work his way through a cornucopia of lucky charms, spoke to himself at the sort of length that would have given Hamlet a complex (Just chill, Sree, Allan Donald had told him before play began this morning), then ran in and beat Hashim Amla with a delivery on fullish length that bent in to beat the push and rap the pads. Asad Rauf gave it to the bowler -- a borderline decision, though Hawkeye subsequently indicated the ball would have clipped the outside of leg stump (0/4; SA 108/2).

Sree's next over was, if anything, even more dramatic. The first ball was a rank long hop that Smith pulled fluidly to the fence. The follow up was short and wide of off, and the Proteas captain took toll, cracking it off the front foot through the covers. Again, Sree paused at the top of his mark, spoke a mouthful, raced in, and produced a beauty -- angling across, hitting line of off, then straightening to go through Smith's attempted flick and disrupt the stumps ((59/81; 11 fours, 121/3).

The last ball of the over was even better. Again, it was angling across the left hander, in this case Ashwell Prince; again, it hit the line just around off, but this time it seamed the other way -- and Prince's edge went straight into Sourav Ganguly's midriff at first slip (0/4; 121/4).

After 28.3 overs in its second innings, South Africa was sitting pretty on 98/0 -- 186 runs ahead, all wickets in hand, and poised for a push that would have knocked India out of the game. 28 deliveries later, four wickets had gone down for 23 runs, and India was right back in it.

It is rare, especially in a second innings, for Anil Kumble to wait 36 overs before getting his first bowl; the leg spinner made up for the inaction with a wicket off his second delivery. Herschelle Gibbs, as he is only too prone too, lost his focus here: the ball was a touch slower, looped higher and hit off, turning fractionally away from just back of length. Gibbs came forward and drove at it, with bat a long way in front of his body; all he managed was to scoop it straight to the short cover placed just for that uppish drive (9/24; 5/140).

At the other end, Zaheer Khan had come in for a second spell and began with a testing over. His second, the 38th, produced the wicket he has been looking for all innings: the ball swung in, straightened and hit line of middle, and pinned Mark Boucher as the batsman tried to flick (8/14; SA 143/6). Those two strikes were crucial -- of the Proteas batsmen left, Gibbs and Boucher were the ones who, given a bit of breathing space, could have launched a potentially match-winning assault.

Suddenly, it was India that was buzzing with possibility; Kumble began bowling quicker and fuller, the close cordon's appeals became increasingly shriller, and Shaun Pollock and Andrew Hall were forced on the defensive. The way they played, with an overt emphasis on dour defense, clearly indicated that from looking for time to bowl India out, the home team was reduced to having to play out time, and not allow itself to be run over. One of those little info-blurbs on screen pointed out that in 2002, Andrew Hall was car-jacked, with a gun to his head, for 45 minutes. For a while there, he must have felt that was better than having a bunch of chirping Indian fielders yelling and doing their nut after every Kumble delivery.

Perversely, however, all that free-flowing adrenalin worked against the Indians. First Zaheer, then VRV Singh, lost their way, either overpitching or going too short and allowing the Proteas bats to relieve pressure with some well struck fours Singh  conceded 15 in one over, the 46th, in the process undoing Kumble's miserly work. This tendency to relax before a job is fully done is a perennial bane of the way we play our cricket; at one point, the sight of Zaheer Khan merrily signing autographs even as Kumble was into his delivery stride prompted skipper Rahul Dravid to pull his seamer up quite sharply.

Given the sudden, untimely prodigality of two of his seamers and the exhaustion of Sreesanth, Dravid was forced to try Virender Sehwag's off spin, as foil to Kumble; the ex-vice captain began with a maiden; at the other end, Pollock survived a very close shout against Kumble, with Ian Howell giving the batsman benefit of nebulous doubt (Pollock 14/48; SA 176/6 at the time). In Sehwag's next over, Hall's attempt to take a short single saw Tendulkar, at mid off, over-run the ball in his eagerness, and miss a relatively simple run out chance. (While on fielding, someone needs to talk VRV Singh out of his habit of trying to stop the ball on the boundary line with his foot -- or, alternately, hire him a football coach; a Pollock four off Kumble was the second time this innings Singh's footballing skills have let him down, and eight runs leaked in the field in two tries is a bit tough on your mates).

31.3 overs in the extended session this morning produced 126 runs for the loss of six wickets; SA went in on 190/6, leading India overall by 280 runs with four wickets in hand.

On balance, you had to say that India, after two days on the receiving end, won its first session of play; the pity of it is that the bowlers took their foot off the pedal a touch too soon, and have allowed SA to crawl back through the gate with an unbroken 49 run partnership for the 7th wicket.

For South Africa, every extra run is vital; vital, too, is the need to eat up a few more overs, so the overs-to-runs equation when India begins its fourth innings is not too much in favor of the visiting side. From an Indian point of view, 280 to chase in the last innings will mean the team will have to punch above its traditional weight; typically, it has tended to lose its nerve when confronting such situations. Allow the Proteas to score much more -- 50 more, say, after lunch -- and India will find itself right back behind the eight ball, in the fourth innings.