South Africa batted aggressively after an Indian collapse on the second day of the third and final Test at Newlands gave the host nation renewed hope of a series-clinching win.
Captain Graeme Smith hit a confident 76 not out as South Africa reached 144 for one in reply to India's first innings of 414. The last five wickets fell for 19 runs.
Shaun Pollock, who helped precipitate the Indian collapse by taking four for 75, said South Africa would take a confident approach into the rest of the match.
"There's a lot of cricket to be played," he said. "We can't get too far ahead of ourselves and we need to solidify with another solid partnership tomorrow, but obviously the quicker we do things if we do get a big score, the more time it gives us with regards to trying to win the Test match."
With the series locked at 1-1, India were well on the way to batting South Africa out of the match before they crumbled against Pollock and debutant left-arm spinner Paul Harris, who took four for 129.
Pollock said the tall Harris had made an impressive debut.
"He bowled very well. To take some big scalps the way he did, by getting Sachin [Tendulkar] and [Virender] Sehwag, was a pretty good effort," he said.
"We're in a good position now," he said. "Getting those five wickets at the end so cheaply was a good turning point for us. Then to have batted the way we have, to set a base to launch from, was important."
Smith and Hashim Amla (50 not out) put on an unbeaten 130 for the second wicket.
The left-handed Smith, who struggled for form throughout last year before finishing the year with a half-century in the second Test in Durban, batted aggressively.
He opened his score with a six off the first ball of the innings when an attempted pull against Zaheer Khan flew off a top edge over the fine leg boundary.
He reached his half-century off 64 balls and by the close had batted for 180 minutes, faced 111 balls and hit 11 fours and a six. When he was on 31 he became the fifth South African to score 4,000 Test runs.
Smith played very positively against leg-spinner Anil Kumble.
Although Kumble troubled both Smith and Amla by bowling into a rough patch outside a right-hander's leg stump, he conceded 39 runs in 12 overs without bowling a maiden.
But Indian wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik said he believed Kumble could still do a lot of damage to the South African batting.
"He's a fantastic bowler and there's quite a bit of rough, which makes it difficult for the left-handers ... It just takes one good ball. If we can get one early wicket and follow it up with two or three more, we can take it from there," Karthik said
Amla, who made only 18 runs in his first four innings of the series, joined Smith after Shanthakumaran Sreesanth struck early for India.
A.B. de Villiers was caught behind by Dinesh Karthik off an inside edge to be Sreesanth's 17th victim of the series.
Earlier, Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly made half-centuries but India's tailenders failed against the accurate bowling of Pollock and the spin of Harris.
RSS