Hardik Pandya struggled as much as his top-order teammates at first, but managed to wiggle his way out of the tricky period to play an extremely vital knock as India escaped the trench that Vernon Philander and Dale Steyn had pushed them into after Lunch. The all-rounder earned two reprieves - a dropped catch by Dean Elgar when he was on 15 and a fluffed stumping chance when he was on 71 - and played out a counterattacking essay to reduce India's deficit considerably. At Tea, India had 185 for 7 on the board, the deficit now down to 101.
On the first ball after the Lunch intermission, Cheteshwar Pujara undid all his efforts of the first session by poking at a back-of-a-length ball that seamed away from him, giving Faf du Plessis a simple catch at second slip. It came after he and Rohit Sharma had to put their heads down and stay away from any delivery that had the potential to send them back to the pavilion. They put in that effort earnestly for the entirety of the first hour, before Kagiso Rabada's excess pace - a 144kmphs delivery to be specific - had Rohit's name on it. An angled in delivery struck him in line to break the stubborn stand.
With Ashwin for company, the task of continuing the show of resilience was on Pujara, who did well to go to the break unscathed but somehow couldn't resist temptation 40 minutes later. Almost as if on cue, Ravichandran Ashwin followed suit, poking at a similar ball that got Pujara, and being sent packing by an acrobatic take from Quinton de Kock behind the stumps.
India were in further trouble early in the session when Wriddhiman Saha expected a Dale Steyn delivery to seam away and offered judgement, only for it to seam in and strike him on the back thigh. He reviewed hoping a height issue would bail him out, but that was not the case.
At 91 for 7, India ran the risk of failing to avoid follow-on as the South African pacers had their tails up. But Pandya shrugged off his troubled start, and forged an undefeated 93-run partnership with Bhuvneshwar Kumar. The two enjoyed a busy time in the middle as they kept talking and warning each other of what to expect when they rotated strike. Bhuvneshwar was more than happy to remain in the middle with a run to his name - he did so for 33 balls - but Pandya didn't see a need to shrug his natural instinct which has been to take risks and play his shots.
Pandya's growing confidence in the middle coincided with the ball going soft with more overs being bowled as well as Morkel struggling with his line and length. The Indian allrounder took his calculated risks with a few aerial hits, and gave the scoring rate an upward spike. Rabada tested him, but the runs came against the rest. A flat-batted hit over extra cover helped Pandya get to a 46-ball half-century, and get Faf du Plessis thinking. Bhuvneshwar too played a couple of beautiful strokes after having been a muted partner to Pandya, prompting the South African skipper to turn to his left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj.
Pandya went after him straightaway, smashing a six and a four off his first over, but was also in extreme luck as de Kock fumbled and failed to collect the ball for a clear stumping chance. By the time another session break came along, Pandya had 81 against his name, off just 68 balls.
Brief scores: South Africa 286 (AB de Villiers 65, Faf du Plessis 62; Bhuvneshwar Kumar 4-87) lead India 185/7 (Hardik Pandya 81*; Philander 3-33) by 101 runs
