A lethal spell of reverse-swing bowling from Dale Steyn - 3.4-2-1-5, and the rough-induced wicket for Paul Harris, resulted in a spectacular collapse for India, who lost their last six wickets for 12 runs in 7.4 overs after tea. After Harris got MS Dhoni to glove one that kicked from the rough outside leg, Steyn was all over the batsmen. Quick, accurate, swinging in with the shine, Steyn had the Indian tail backing away and exposing the stumps to him.

Dhoni went in the first over after the break, and in the second over Steyn started the wreckage. The first ball from Steyn after tea tailed into S Badrinath who chipped straight to short midwicket. The other debutant, Wriddhiman Saha, paid no heed to the inswing, and shouldered arms to the first ball he faced from Steyn. Zaheer Khan and Amit Mishra, clearly not there for bravery awards, backed away and played him on. It ended with Harbhajan Singh getting stuck in front, giving Steyn his best career figures. Immediately followed the definitive image, Graeme Smith motioning towards the Indian dressing room, asking them to bat again.

Virender Sehwag ended his century with a shot as average as the innings was remarkable for restraint, letting South Africa edge ahead again after having almost nullified the morning burst of three wickets. Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel had reduced India to 56 for 3 with fiery opening spells before Sehwag and the debutant S Badrinath resurrected the innings with a 136-run partnership.

Don`t go by Sehwag`s strike-rate of 78.41. He was as watchful as is possible by his standards. He left alone deliveries outside off, the same ones that go blazing away when India are in a good position. When Steyn tried outwingers, he was driven mostly down the ground, and that too only when he was too full.

Morkel followed the plan of tucking Sehwag up by aiming for the ribs and chest, and thus using a square third man as a virtual attacking position. While Sehwag kept leaving alone ones wide outside off, those into his body were flicked towards midwicket, along the ground. By the time the main bowlers got tired and were taken off, Sehwag had reached 31 off 52, and Badrinath had shown the aptitude to hang around.

When spin came on, Sehwag didn`t treat Paul Harris as the trash he thinks spinners are, but got his runs through dabs and pushes to long-off. Parnell tried to tempt Sehwag with short ones outside off, and all he got was one bottom edge that evaded stumps. From 31 off 52, Sehwag went to 63 off 90, only eight of which came behind square on the off, and that told the story of his restraint.

The last hour before lunch featured the second line of bowlers and zero trouble for the batsmen. Post lunch, South Africa came out attacking with Steyn and Morkel. With the semi-new ball, they weren`t nearly half the threat and Sehwag tucked in. He deliberately cut Steyn in front of square, waited for Morkel to bowl too full, and got boundaries down the ground.

Soon Graeme Smith had to fall back on the weaker bowlers. Having reached his century, the last stretch of which featured a quiet period against over-the-stumps stuff from Harris, Sehwag brought upon his innings an unfortunate end, although South Africa will claim there was a clear plan to it. Parnell bowled an over of full and wide deliveries with a strong off-side field, two of which went for boundaries and one for five wides, but the last one was lobbed to deep cover.

Badrinath was entrenched by then and a slow, edgy start had been put behind. A hit in the arm from Steyn was forgotten. The third man area was favoured as edges went through the gap, but these were soft-handed shots. Badrinath wasn`t given much to drive and accordingly he didn`t score anything down the ground. But the little nudges and nurdles had taken him to 35 out of the 136-run stand when Sehwag got out. Following Sehwag`s dismissal the scoring came to a near halt, but Badrinath looked reasonably comfortable as he made his way to a creditable half-century.

Comfort was not on the batsmen`s minds when the play started. There was assistance with the new ball, and the hottest new-ball combination in the world used it expertly in a 13-over spell of 3 for 42. Morkel`s day began with a five-over-old ball, and he gave Gautam Gambhir a sighter from hell. Back of a length, couldn`t get forward, couldn`t go back, 145kph, angling into him, making him commit to the shot, and then left him enough to kiss the outside edge.

M Vijay, playing his fourth Test, got a few testing half-lengthers from Morkel before Steyn had him for breakfast. Ball one: full, swinging away, defended by Vijay off the back foot, in front of his body. Ball two: Steyn goes a foot wider, the wrist goes outside of the ball, Vijay shoulders arms, and the inswinger pegs back the prone off stump.

Sachin Tendulkar wasn`t going to be that easy to get. When he left balls alone, he covered the stumps. Steyn almost got him too with the inducker, but Tendulkar was close to the line and got a thick inside edge. Two balls later, he came forward and off-drove an outswinger. End of over. The first ball of the next over was similar, elicited a similar shot, but was about a foot shorter, which meant Tendulkar wasn`t close enough to it, and hence the edge.