Durban, Dec. 27: Take a rock-solid pitch, lay out an emerald green carpet and wait for the Indian batsmen to make mistakes. The South Africans have been employing the same strategy at Kingsmead for the last 20 years with tremendous success, the last two Tests ending in heavy defeats for the visiting Indians.

This time round, they may have wielded the axe on their feet. On a day dominated by the bowlers, 18 wickets fell in total with the tourists first bowled out for 205 and the hosts replying with a sorry 131.

Dale Steyn completed a 15th career five-wicket haul, while four wickets from Harbhajan Singh and three for Zaheer Khan sent the Proteas to a second lowest first-innings total at the Durban venue — the previous worst coming against England more than 70 years ago.

Hashim Amla (33) top-scored, but the poor showing with the bat saw the hosts concede a 74-run lead and that was extended to 166 when bad light halted the day, thanks to an unbroken 36-run stand from V.V.S. Laxman (23) and Cheteshwar Pujara (10).

Virender Sehwag and Murali Vijay put on 42 for the first wicket when India batted second time around, but Sehwag then needlessly swished at a wide Lonwabo Tsotsobe delivery and edged behind to Mark Boucher for 32.

Two more wickets in the next two overs — Vijay (9) caught by Amla at short leg off Morne Morkel and Rahul Dravid (2) snapped up by the wicketkeeper after playing poorly to Tsotsobe — again threatened to change the game.

And South Africa were right back in it when Sachin Tendulkar’s thick edge from Steyn was pouched by AB de Villiers as India’s key man departed for 6.

Laxman and Pujara took India to the close on what was a dramatic second day, which began with the home side claiming the last four India first-innings wickets for just 22 runs in 9.1 overs. Resuming on their overnight 183/6, Steyn completed a five-wicket haul in the fifth over of the day when Harbhajan (21) was excellently caught by De Villiers at third slip.

Zaheer, out for a duck, handed Morkel his first wicket via a routine catch for Boucher. Mahendra Singh Dhoni (35) took his side past 200, but was next to go when he was caught in the deep by Alviro Petersen while trying to hit out against Steyn.

Sreesanth (0) was last man out when he top-edged Morkel to Boucher. In reply, Zaheer, who missed the first Test loss due to injury, inspired the tourists and was rewarded in the fifth over when Graeme Smith (9) nicked behind to Dhoni. India’s attack leader soon had a second wicket too, bowling Petersen (24) around his legs after the batsman shuffled across his stumps.

Jacques Kallis (10) and Amla took the hosts past 50, before the former was caught short after a straight drive by the latter was diverted on to the stumps. And De Villiers edged to Dhoni after a rare fine ball from the erratic Sreesanth as the players went to lunch on 74/4.

Despite looking so assured at the crease, Amla was surprised by a Harbhajan doosra, which he missed completely and was trapped leg before wicket to shortly after the resumption. Zaheer accounted for the out-of-sorts Ashwell Prince (13), bowling him via an inside edge to reduce the home side to 100/6.

That was followed by stunning work from Dravid which enabled Harbhajan to account for Steyn (1) - the fielder diving one-handed to his left at slip and holding on for his 200th Test catch. The rest of the batting quickly folded thereafter as the wickets of Paul Harris (0), Morkel (10) and Tsotsobe (0) left Boucher unbeaten on 16 saw South Africa being dismissed in 37.2 overs.

Scoreboard
India 1st innings
(overnight: 183/6)
MS Dhoni c Petersen b Steyn 35, Harbhajan c de Villiers b Steyn 21, Zaheer c Boucher b Morkel 0, Ishant (n.o.) 1, S.Sreesanth c Boucher b Morkel 0.
Extras (b-1, lb-2, w-4, nb-2) 9
Total (all out; 65.1 overs) 205
FoW: 1-43, 2-48, 3-79, 4-117, 5-130, 6-156, 7-190, 8-193, 9-205
Bowling: Dale Steyn 19-6-50-6, M. Morkel 19.1-3-68-2, L. Tsotsobe 11-3-40-2, J. Kallis 8-2-18-0, P. Harris 8-1-26-0
South Africa 1st innings
A. Petersen b Zaheer 24, G. Smith c Dhoni b Zaheer 9, H. Amla lbw Harbhajan 33, J. Kallis run out 10, AB de Villiers c Dhoni b Sreesanth 0, A. Prince b Zaheer 13, M. Boucher n.o. 16, D. Steyn c Dravid b Harbhajan 1, P. Harris c Pujara b Harbhajan 0, M. Morkel c Harbhajan b Sharma 10, L. Tsotsobe c Vijay b Harbhajan 0, Extras (lb-2, w-1, nb-12) 15
Total (all out; 37.2 overs) 131
FoW: 1-23, 2-46, 3-67, 4-74, 5-96, 6-100, 7-103, 8-103, 9-127
Bowling: Zaheer Khan 13-2-36-3, S. Sreesanth 8-0-41-1, Ishant Sharma 9-2-42-1, Harbhajan Singh 7.2-2-10-4.

India second innings
V. Sehwag c Boucher b Tsotsobe 32, M. Vijay c Amla b Morkel 9, R. Dravid c Boucher b Tsotsobe 2, S. Tendulkar c de Villiers b Steyn 6, VVS Laxman n.o. 23, C. Pujara n.o 10.
Extras (b-2, lb-4, w-4) 10 Total (4 wickets; 30.5 overs) 92
FoW: 1-42, 2-44, 3-48, 4-56.
Bowling: D. Steyn 7-1-27-1, M. Morkel 7-1-17-1, L. Tsotsobe 6.5-2-16-2, J. Kallis 6-1-18-0, P. Harris 4-1-8-0.