Smith leads South Africa recovery

Third Test, Cape Town, day two (close): South Africa 144-1 v India 414
Scorecard

Skipper Graeme Smith struck an unbeaten 76 as South Africa closed day two of the deciding Test in Cape Town 270 runs behind India at 144-1.

Smith hit the first ball of the innings for six, sharing an unbroken 130 with Hasham Amla, who regained form with 50.

Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly hit fifties to put India on top, but five wickets fell for 19 in six overs after lunch and they were dismissed for 414.

Ganguly was last out, as Shaun Pollock and Paul Harris took four wickets each.

With Smith pulling a four in addition to his top-edged maximum, 10 came from Zaheer Khan's opening over.

Shanthakumaran Sreesanth struck in his second over, however, nipping one back sharply off the seam to brush the inside edge of AB de Villiers through the gate.

Amla, who had scored only 18 in his four previous innings in the series, including two ducks, again started nervously but recorded his second Test fifty in his 10th match.

Earlier, Tendulkar recorded his 43rd Test fifty, his second of the series, before edging debutant left-arm spinner Harris to slip three overs before lunch.
Tendulkar made a watchful start to the second day after resuming on 28, taking more than an hour to strike his first boundary.

He then launched four fours in 10 deliveries either side of his fifty, before Harris defeated him with some sharp turn out of the rough from around the wicket.

VVS Laxman was the first to fall, Dale Steyn uprooting his off-stump in the eighth over of the morning.

Ganguly had not got off the mark when he ducked into a short one from Steyn that left him needing treatment on the field plus a new protective helmet.

He was repreived when lofting Harris to mid-off, where a diving Pollock could not hold on to the chance.

Virender Sehwag, moved down to number seven having opened with little success in the previous two Tests, confidently struck Makhaya Ntini for two early boundaries and later swept Harris for six.

But in attempting to repeat the stroke, he got a top edge to a turning ball and was well caught by Ntini diving forward at deep mid-wicket.

Ganguly moved to 66, his highest score of the series, launching Harris high over long-on into the stands, where the ball struck a female steward a painful blow on the boot.

Left with only last man Munaf Patel, he attacked but was defeated by a Pollock slower ball, spooning a catch to short mid-on to put the evergreen all-rounder above Curtly Ambrose into ninth place in the Test wicket-taking standings.