An unbeaten 83 from Virat Kohli helped India, who were struggling at eight for two at one stage, recover to post 190 at stumps on day three of the fourth Test being played in Delhi on Saturday
Kohli combined with first-innings centurion Ajinkya Rahane - for a 133 runs stand for the fifth wicket - to help India wrestle back the advantage from a South Africa side looking to restrict India's lead.
Morne Morkel shook India's ranks early in the day and claimed wickets off successive deliveries in the first session. Murali Vijay and Rohit Sharma were his victims.
The double blow brought Cheteshwar Pujara and Shikhar Dhawan together. But the duo struggled to find fluency against Morkel and Kyle Abbott, who repeatedly beat them outside off stump.
The duo met with a similar far eventually. Dhawan was put out of his misery by a swinging Yorker from Morkel, that broke through his defence and took the leg stump. Two-overs later, Pujara played down the wrong line to an Imran Tahir delivery that skidded through and took the middle stump.
The blow brought Kohli and Rahane together. They had looked the most assured batsmen in India's first innings, and they continued to bat fluently, timing their shots better than the top order had done.
South Africa's bowlers still made them work hard for their runs. Though their partnership run-rate of 2.66 was significantly better than the 1.97 achieved by the previous-highest stand in the innings, between Dhawan and Pujara, it was still slow going by their standards.
Kohli, who has struggled to find form through most of the Test series, finally found his feet. He scored at a fairly good clip, though not with his usual array of leg-side whips and cover drives; with the pitch throwing up occasionally uncertain bounce, he played later than he often does, letting the ball come on and picking up a number of boundaries with controlled dabs to the third-man region.
His 83 came off 153 balls and included ten boundaries. Rahane remained unbeaten as well on 52 at stumps. The duo helped stretch India's lead to 403, with two days of play still remaining.