South Africa are in a commanding position after Day1.Dale Steyn bowled a fast and furious spell on a condusive wicket.Dale Steyn claimed 5-23 as the hosts lasted exactly 20 overs after their captain, Anil Kumble, had won the toss and decided to bat first.
Had the surrender taken place on a truly spiteful pitch, India's finest could at least have dusted off the excuses. As it was, only Rahul Dravid fell to a peach of a delivery. The rest were either victims of their misjudgement or their inability to get into line against fiery pace bowling from Steyn in particular. The tail can be absolved of blame after being swept away by the whirlwind, but there could be no excuses for a top order that has perhaps grown accustomed to batting on substandard batsman-friendly pitches in home Tests.
Irfan Pathan, recalled in place of the injured Sachin Tendulkar to strengthen the bowling, finished as the leading scorer, hitting three fours before being left high and dry on 21 not out.
Mahenda Singh Dhoni was the only other batsman to make it into double figures with 14. Extras were the second top-scorer with 19.
Makhaya Ntini claimed the opening wicket of Wasim Jaffer before going on to dimiss VVS Laxman, who was bowled shouldering arms, and Sourav Ganguly in his fourth over.
Virender Sehwag, coming off the back of the fastest ever triple century in the first Test, fell in between to Steyn who then bowled Rahul Dravid with an away swinger to leave the hosts five down with only 53 on the board.
Dhoni attempted to hit his side out of trouble until an extravagant waft outside off stump gave Mark Boucher a simple catch behind the stumps and allowed Morne Morkel to get in on the carnage.
Steyn claimed the final three wickets to fall in a hurry to claim his eighth five-wicket haul in just his 22nd Test.
McKenzie was fortunate to survive a vociferous leg-before shout from RP at the start of his innings, and Ganguly then failed to grab a chance at short leg off Sreesanth when Smith had just two. But by and large, the Indian bowlers just didn't make the batsmen play enough, while Smith and McKenzie also showed a much better awareness of which deliveries to leave well alone.
Smith was soon cutting and driving with customary élan, and two fours in a Sreesanth over had the total racing towards 50. McKenzie joined in with two boundaries off RP and then played some gorgeous off-drives when Pathan came on to try and trouble the South Africans with left-arm swing.
Hashim Amla and Ashwell Prince also fell to Harbhajan soon after but Kallis and de Villiers stopped any momentum for India, putting South Africa in complete control by the end of an eventful day.
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