Ahmedabad, April 3: Jacques Kallis and AB de Villiers slammed brilliant half centuries as the Proteas took their total past the two hundred run mark. With six wickets in hand and over four days still to go in the match, the South Africans look well placed to give the Indians a run for their money. The visitors ended Day 1 at a score of 223/4, a lead of 147 runs.

Earlier, India spin king made his presence felt at Motera as he made inroads into the South African middle order by claiming two more wickets. He got the prized wicket of Hashim Amla and followed it by getting Ashwell Prince plumb in front of the wicket. With three wickets gone in quick succession, South Africa were slightly on the back foot.

Prior to this, Harbhajan Singh claimed the wicket of Neil McKenzie with an outside the off stump delivery that spun just enough to get an outside edge. Rahul Dravid caught the ball in first slip as South Africa lost their second wicket at tea time.

Sreesanth struck gold for India as he claimed the wicket of South Africa skipper Graeme Smith by getting him dead plumb in front of the wicket. His LBW brought out in-form Hashim Amla to the crease as the home fans finally had a reason to cheer for their team.

South Africa started their campaign against India on a positive note as the duo of Graeme Smith and Neil McKenzie played with a steady head, helping the visitor’s total to cross 50 runs for no loss. They rotated the strike effectively, a paradox when pitted against the home team’s batting efforts.

Earlier in the day, Indian innings spiralled into an abyss as Dale Steyn picked up five wickets getting India all out for an embarrassing 76 runs. In Makhaya Ntini’s words, “It could not have been better than this for us, especially against India.” The pacers devastated the entire opposition in just 20 overs that made India look less than ordinary on the field, a sharp contrast to the 150 overs they took to give away the ten wickets in Chennai.

Earlier, Steyn claimed two scalps in the form of Rahul Dravid and Harbhajan Singh. The former was clean bowled while the latter was plumb in front of the wicket, creating no doubt in the umpire’s mind about giving him out LBW. India were in doldrums as the tailenders were left to fend for themselves in the first session of play with 8 wickets down for a paltry score of 56 runs.

The first change in the bowling brought Morne Morkel to the forefront, he notched up a fine spell right from the word go and picked up two significant middle order wickets in the form of MS Dhoni and Anil Kumble. The batsmen could not muster a strong reply in their short lived innings.

In the first hour, India were rocked by the tearing fast deliveries from Makhaya Ntini as the pacer steamrolled past the willows of the top order batsmen with ease. He clean bowled southpaw Sourav Ganguly for a duck shortly after he had sent VVS Laxman packing in similar style. South Africa were on top of their game with India trembling after losing the first 4 wickets cheaply.

Dale Steyn had earlier sent shockwaves down the Indian camp as he castled Sehwag soon after the home team had lost its first wicket. With two wickets gone in successive overs, Proteas pacers seemed to be on top of their game in the first hour of the second Test match.

Prior to this, Ntini drew first blood for his team as he claimed the crucial wicket of opener Wasim Jaffer early on in the Indian innings. The batsman edged a delivery pitched in the corridors of uncertainty into the hands of Graeme Smith standing at first slip.

Kumble won the toss and elected to bat first in the second Test against South Africa. Graeme Smith looked upbeat and was ready to give the Indian openers a run for their money on the dustbowl of a pitch in Motera.

India opted to have a combination of 6 batsmen and 5 bowlers for the match. Skipper Anil Kumble proved his fitness and booked a place in the playing eleven.

The surprise for the morning was the inclusion of Baroda speedster Irfan Pathan in place of the injured Sachin Tendulkar while Yuvraj Singh and Kaif could not get a berth in the final team composition. Delhi pacer Ishant Sharma also warmed the bench as he was unfit for action as well.

India 1st innings: W Jaffer c Smith b Ntini 9, V Sehwag b Steyn 6, R Dravid b Steyn 3, VVS Laxman b Ntini 3, SC Ganguly b Ntini 0, MS Dhoni c Boucher b Morkel 14, IK Pathan not out 21, A Kumble b Morkel 0, Harbhajan Singh lbw b Steyn 1, RP Singh c Smith b Steyn 0, S Sreesanth b Steyn 0 Extras: (b 4, lb 11, w 2, nb 2) 19 Total: (all out; 20 overs; 109 mins) 76 (3.80 runs per over) FOW: 1-16, 2-24, 3-30, 4-30, 5-53, 6-55, 7-55, 8-56, 9-76, 10-76 Bowling:DW Steyn 8-2-23-5, M Ntini 6-1-18-3, M Morkel 6-1-20-2 South Africa 1st innings: GC Smith lbw b Sreesanth 34, ND McKenzie c Dravid b Harbhajan Singh 42, HM Amla c Jaffer b Harbhajan Singh 16, JH Kallis not out 60, AG Prince lbw b Harbhajan Singh 2, AB de Villiers not out 59 Extras: (b 1, lb 7, w 2) 10

Total (4 wickets; 64 overs) 223 (3.48 runs per over)

To bat MV Boucher, M Morkel, PL Harris, DW Steyn, M Ntini

Fall of wickets1-78 (Smith, 15.3 ov), 2-100 (McKenzie, 23.4 ov), 3-101 (Amla, 25.4 ov), 4-117 (Prince, 29.5 ov)

Bowling O M R W Econ

S Sreesanth 15 3 53 1 3.53 (1w)

RP Singh 13 1 49 0 3.76

IK Pathan 8 1 37 0 4.62 (1w)

Harbhajan Singh 16 3 49 3 3.06

A Kumble 12 0 27 0 2.25