Ashwell Prince, South Africa's leading batsman in the past year, anchored his team to a strong position on the second day of the first Test against Pakistan at Centurion Park on Friday.
South Africa were 254 for four at the close in reply to Pakistan's first innings total of 313.
But Prince shared the limelight with Pakistan seamer Mohammad Asif who took all four wickets for 58 runs.
The 24-year-old Asif was playing his first Test since having a doping ban overturned.
The left-handed Prince, who topped the averages in the recent series against India, was unbeaten on 77.
He came in with South Africa in trouble at 53 for three and shared stands of 90 with Hashim Amla (71) and an unbeaten 111 with Herschelle Gibbs (58 not out).
Amla said that South Africa were determined to bat the tourists out of the match.
"The ideal is to bat once," said Amla. "The pitch is quite good for batting but it is already starting to deteriorate and help the spinners, so batting fourth could be difficult."
Makhaya Ntini was mainly responsible for Pakistan failing to get the total in excess of 350 they had hoped for.
Ntini took five for 83, his 16th five-wicket haul in Tests, as Pakistan paid a heavy penalty for their obsession with hook and pull shots which claimed seven batsmen.
Pakistan self-destructed in a frenetic morning's play, scoring 71 runs in 67 minutes and 12.5 overs but losing five wickets.
Three wickets fell to hook shots during the first day and the trend continued on Friday, with captain Inzamam-ul-Haq becoming the first offender.
Inzamam was out for 42 in the fourth over of the day when he hooked Ntini straight to Amla on the square leg boundary.
He stood at the crease looking disgusted with himself before he began trudging slowly to the dress-ing room.
Kamran Akmal, who made an aggressive 29, top-edged a pull to mid-on off Andre Nel and Shahid Nazir, who could have been out several times in a hit-or-miss innings of 15, top-edged an attempted hook off Ntini to gully.
Immediately after Nazir's dismissal, Rana Naved-ul-Hasan hooked Ntini high to square leg and Amla took a spectacular diving catch but landed over the boundary for the batsman to score six runs.
Danish Kaneria fell to a routine catch at second slip as Ntini took his fifth wicket before Naved-ul-Hasan was the seventh man to be out hooking or pulling, top-edging a pull for Nel to hold a catch off his own bowling.
The tall Asif swung the ball both ways when South Africa started their innings.
South African captain Graeme Smith, who finished the recent series against India with three successive half-centuries, was out without scoring when he edged a ball that swung away from him to wicketkeeper Akmal.
De Villiers followed in Asif's next over when he edged an out-swinger to Younis Khan at second slip.
South Africa could have been in worse trouble if Amla had been caught on four when Yasir Hameed could not hold a sharp chance at gully off Asif.
Jacques Kallis made 18 before he was Asif's third victim, caught at second slip, but Amla and Prince steadied the innings.
Amla was looking in authoritative form as he made his 71 off 152 balls with 11 fours before edging a catch to Akmal when he pushed forward outside his off stump.
While Prince played a chanceless innings, Gibbs showed his best touch of the summer as Pakistan's bowlers looked ineffectual.
By the close Prince had faced 144 balls and hit 10 fours while Gibbs had faced 109 and hit 11 boundaries.
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