South Africa A reduced the visitors India A to 145/6 at stumps on the second day of the second and final unofficial Test on Sunday.
Beuran Hendricks was the pick of the bowlers for hosts as he scalped the top three Indian batsmen — M. Vijay, Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane.
Earlier, India A captain Pujara looked solid during his innings of 54 as he hit five fours facing 97 balls before left-arm seamer Beuran Hendricks sent him back at the stroke of tea time after an 86-run second wicket stand with Rahane.
South Africa A finished their first innings on a healthy 341 after being down in the dumps at 97/6.
Wayne Parnell (91) and Simon Harmer (96) added 186 runs for the seventh wicket to take the Proteas to a position of safety.
Both were unlucky to miss out on what should have been well deserved centuries. Parnell faced 259 deliveries hitting 12 fours in the process before he nicked one to Wriddhiman Saha off Ishwar Pandey’s bowling.
Harmer, who is primarily an off-spinner was more attacking as he hit 13 fours and a six in his 168-ball knock before left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem trapped him leg before.
Pandey (3/67 from 24 overs) and Nadeem (3/99 from 30 overs) performed well while Siddharth Kaul and Parvez Rasool also got two wickets apiece.
Starting the day at 231/6, Parnell and Harmer batted for a further 18 overs as they took the score to 283 before Harmer was finally sent back by Nadeem. In his next over, Jharkhand left-arm spinner sent back Kyle Abbott.
When Parnell was finally became the ninth South African wicket to fall at the team score of 291, it seemed that Indian bowlers will be able to restrict the home side to less than 300. But Andrew Birch (44, 58 balls, 8x4) in company of Hendricks (10) added 50 runs for the last wicket to take the score closer to 350.