Durban;  Indian fast bowlers picked early wickets to have South Africa on the ropes on the first morning of the second cricket Test at Kingsmead here today (Dec 26, 2006).

The bravado shown by the hosts before the start of the Test translated little in the middle as they took lunch at a shaky 67 for 3 after being reduced to 28 for 3 inside the first hour.

Zaheer Khan (2 for 5) and S Sreesanth (1 for 33) once again proved to be the nemesis of the South African batsmen before Herschelle Gibbs (26) and Ashwell Prince (17) stemmed the rot with an unbeaten 39-run fourth wicket stand.

Zaheer began with his staple diet of Graeme Smith's (5) wicket though the mode was different this time. The South African skipper's attempted pull spooned over the slips but not far enough for Sachin Tendulkar who ran backwards from first slip to complete a fine catch.

The left-arm seamer then built on his success by winning a leg before shout against Hashim Amla (1) who tried to flick an inducker and missed it completely.

Sreesanth, after his four overs from the far end, replaced Zaheer from the dressing room end in the 11th over and met with instant success when AB de Villiers (9) drove from his position and was smartly pouched by Tendulkar in first slip.