Sachin Tendulkar after dismissing Kallis on Thursday

Cape Town: India managed to gain an upper hand in the third and final Test against South Africa after almost losing the plot on a riveting third day’s play here on Thursday.

The Indians secured a 41-run lead after bowling out South Africa in the dying minutes of the day’s play for 373 with Anil Kumble claiming four for 117 from 42-odd overs.

South Africa began promisingly with the overnight pair of Graeme Smith (94) and Hashim Amla (63) adding 29 runs from the first half an hour’s play.

However, Smith departed at 173, failing to keep down an on-drive which was smartly picked up by Virender Sehwag, standing at an unusual position next to the pitch.

Amla followed his partner soon in the pavilion, chasing a wide delivery from Sreesanth into the hands of wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik. He batted for 212 minutes and hit seven fours from 172 balls.

Soon another stand developed between Kallis and Prince, both of whom showed excellent technique in coming to terms with spin on a crumbling pitch.

The partnership had gone beyond three hours when Sachin Tendulkar was brought into attack and his hugely turning leg-breaks provided the Indians a breakthrough.

His partner Prince departed without any addition to the total and Indians were back in the game again.

The position only improved for the Indians before the tea break when Herschelle Gibbs (7) became the third batsman to be out in the afternoon session.

However, the position was retrieved appreciably by Pollock-Boucher duo who put on 69 runs for the seventh wicket.

Pollock departed first, driving a chance to Sourav Ganguly in the slips and soon after Boucher had completed his 50, the wicketkeeper batsman tamely steered a catch behind the stumps off Munaf Patel.

Kumble then picked up the final two wickets off successive balls in his 43rd over.