South Africa v India, 1st Test, Centurion, 2nd day

Openers tighten South Africa's grip on match

Lunch South Africa 111 for 1 (Smith 62, Petersen 45*) trail India 136 (Morkel 5-20) by 25 runs

South Africa took complete control of the first Test on a sunny second day in Centurion. Along with the clouds, the demons on the pitch also went missing as Graeme Smith and Alviro Petersen blunted the Indian bowling to come within touching distance of the visitors' total by lunch.

The day started on the perfect note for South Africa: Morne Morkel got rid of MS Dhoni on the third ball of the day - the Indian captain walking after being struck in front of middle stump. Morkel finished with career-best figures of 5 for 20, and India finished on their overnight score of 136, their third-lowest total in South Africa.

India's vaunted batting order had been dismantled, and there was more punishment in store as the South African openers were rarely troubled in the course of a century partnership. Sreesanth and Ishant Sharma got the new ball to move, and though the batsmen swished-and-missed some times, there were no genuine chances through much of the session.

Petersen was scratchy early on, and it was Smith who did the bulk of the scoring in a watchful start. After six overs, South Africa had crawled to 9 for 0 and it was the introduction of 19-year-old rookie Jaidev Unadkat that increased the run-flow. His third delivery was a gentle half-volley that was driven fluently past mid-off for four by Smith. Bowling in the late-120s, his bouncers didn't trouble Smith, who pulled one of them powerfully for four.

With Petersen also finding his touch, the run-rate began to rise, and Dhoni turned to spin in the hope of a breakthrough. Harbhajan Singh didn't have the best of starts though, slapped for a couple of fours in his first over and then dispatched over midwicket for six in the next. Smith used the cut effectively against Harbhajan, toying with the spinner to pick off three more boundaries. It was the cut that caused his downfall three minutes before lunch, though, as a ball that bounced extra took the top edge to the keeper. That strike buoyed India going into the break, but South Africa remain in a dominant position.

Siddarth Ravindran is a sub-editor at Cricinfo