India were on the charge but their fielding once again let them down.

Bumrah having found his rhythm forced Elgar induced an edge off Elgar but Parthiv Patel hardly moved to his left as the ball flew in between Parthiv and Cheteshwar Pujara at first slip.

With a lead of 118 runs and de Villiers at the crease, South Africa are ahead. However, India would believe they can pick early wickets and set themselves an achievable target.

With the pitch deteriorating, a chase of 250 will be tough and the onus is now on the bowlers to bowl out South Africa.

Earlier, India skipper Virat Kohli notched up his 21st century in Test cricket on Day Three of the second match against South Africa at the SuperSport Park, here on Monday.

The 29-year-old swashbuckling batsman achieved the feat off 146 balls with ten boundaries.

Kohli reached the three-figure mark in the 67th over when he worked first ball of Lungi Ngidi's 12th over towards mid-on.

This was Kohli's second hundred in South Africa. He had earlier scored 119 in Johannesburg in 2013.

With this century, the right-handed batsman became the second Indian captain after Sachin Tendulkar to score a Test hundred in South Africa.

Resuming the second session at 287/8, Kohli played sensibly and completed his 150 runs through a brilliant cut.

However, India were eventually bowled out for 307, falling 28 runs short of South AFrica's first innings total. Kohli (153) was the highest scorer among the Indian batsmen.

The India skipper forged a crucial 71-run partnership for the seventh wicket with Ravichandran Ashwin (38) to stabilise the innings.

The partnership helped India to recover from the early loss of overnight batsman Hardik Pandya (15), who ran himself out. The Baroda all-rounder wanted to take a single off pacer Kagiso Rabada with a tap to mid-on but Kohli refused and the former ran back only to see a direct throw from Vernon Philander caught him short of the crease.

Before the run out, Kohli completed his century with a tap to mid-wicket for a single off Lungisani Ngidi to get to his three-figure mark before running back after an overthrow.

Kohli continued from where he left on Sunday's unbeaten knock of 85. He stamped his authority over the Proteas bowlers and kept on punishing the bad balls.

Ashwin played a stroke-filled knock of 38 in 54 balls. He supported Kohli perfectly at the other end to put pressure on the opponents.

Just when things seemed good in the middle for the hosts, Ashwin was dismissed through a poor poor shot selection off Philander, edging it to Faf du Plesis at the second slip.

Pacer Mohammad Shami then came in the middle and but failed to rise to the pressure as he failed to fend off a rising delivery from Morne Morkel, managing only an edge to Hashim Amla at first slip.

Ishant Sharma (3) was then dismissed by pacer Morne Morkel.

Kohli, while trying to pace up the innings at the end, was then caught by AB de Villiers off Morkel. During his brilliant knock, Kohli milked 15 fours.

For South Africa. Morkel claimed four wickets while Keshav Maharaj, Vernon Philander, Kagiso Rabada and Lungisani Ngidi took one each.