Cape Town, Jan 3 (IANS) India were struggling at 49 for two in the first innings at tea against South Africa on the second day of the third cricket Test at the Newlands here Monday.
Gautam Gambhir was batting on 22 and Sachin Tendulkar on eight at the break after Jacques Kallis struck a valiant 161 to take South Africa to 362 in the first innings.
India’s reply started on a poor note as Virender Sehwag (13) departed in the seventh over after he drove Dale Steyn to Graeme Smith in the covers.
Rahul Dravid’s poor form in the series continued as he was run out in the 11th over with a direct throw from AB de Villiers, who dropped Gambhir off Lonwabo Tsotsobe in the same delivery at gully. But De Villiers did well to recover and his direct throw found Dravid short of the crease.
Earlier in the day, S. Sreesanth bowled brilliantly to claim five wickets, but Kallis stood firm with his 39th Test century.
Kallis hit 19 fours in his 291 ball innings and batted exceptionally well with the tail after South Africa were reduced to 283 for eight. Kallis added 27 runs with Paul Harris (8) for the ninth wicket and another 52 runs for the last wicket with Tsotsobe (8 not out) to frustrate the Indians.
Resuming at 232 for four, South Africa added 32 runs before India struck with the second new ball through Sreesanth, who dismissed Prince and Mark Boucher off successive deliveries.
Sreesanth crashed through the stumps of left-handed Prince, who scored 47 in 100 balls, with a swinging delivery that moved in a long way to find the way between bat and pad.
Boucher then edged an away going delivery to wicketkeeper Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
Kallis was unfazed at the other end showed how he has mastered the conditions when he struck Sreesanth in his next over for two beautifully-timed fours off consecutive balls.
Zaheer Khan (2-82) got rid of Dale Steyn with a bouncer bowled from round the stumps. Steyn just managed to put up his bat and the ball went straight to Cheteshwar Pujara at gully.
Kallis reached his 39th century, second of the series, and sixth of the year.
Sreesanth took his third wicket of day when Morkel, after managing to keep the rampaging fast bowler at bay for 11 balls, finally perished behind the wicket.
Kallis continued in the same vein. He shielded the tail and attacked the loose balls even as the Indian pace trio got the ball to dart around menacingly, but were unlucky to miss the bat.
