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Proteas fight back in Durban

Durban - Dale Steyn has dished up two sets of devastating triple-strikes for South Africa, bowling out India for 334 on day two of the second Test at Kingsmead, in Durban, on Friday.

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At the close of play, South Africa had reached 82 for no loss, facing a first innings deficit of 252.

Openers Graeme Smith and Alviro Petersen were unbeaten on 35 and 46, respectively.

The pair came out in aggressive fashion, looking to eat into the Indian lead, scoring at more than four runs per over.

The day began with India resuming on 181/1 and, after no play was possible in the first session, Steyn became the chief destroyer taking three wickets both before and after tea.

Taking just the one wicket on Thursday, the South African bowling attack came out with a clear wicket-taking strategy on Friday afternoon.

Morne Morkel peppered the batsman with short deliveries and, at the same time, starved India of runs.

Steyn adopted a probing line outside offstump until he made the breakthrough in the 67th over.

Cheteshwar Pujara (70) was drawn into a drive and edged the ball to wicketkeeper AB de Villiers as India lost their first wicket of the day.

It brought an end to a 157-run second-wicket partnership between Murali Vijay and Pujara.

In his next over, Steyn removed Vijay, three short of what would have been his fourth Test century.

A short delivery took the glove and Vijay was caught behind for 97.

Rohit Sharma walked to the crease but Steyn sent him back for a shower off his first ball.

The delivery came back into the right-hander, and Sharma opted to leave the ball only to have his middle stump disturbed.

India fought back after the three quick wickets with a fifth-wicket partnership of 66 between Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane.

Morne Morkel struck just before tea to have Kohli caught for 46 while Rahane remained unbeaten on 51.

After tea, Steyn accounted for Indian captain MS Dhoni (24), attempting a drive but only succeeding in edging to Graeme Smith at slip.

Steyn picked up another two wickets to return figures of 6/100 for the innings. Morkel, who helped clean up the tail, bagged 3/50 with India's last five wickets falling for 14 runs.

Scores:

India: 334 (M. Vijay 97, C. Pujara 70, A Rahane 51 not out; D. Steyn 6-100)

South Africa: 82/0 (G. Smith 35*, A. Petersen 46*)

Teams:

South Africa:

Graeme Smith (captain), Alviro Petersen, Hashim Amla, Jacques Kallis, AB de Villiers (wk), JP Duminy, Faf du Plessis, Robin Peterson, Vernon Philander, Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel

India:

Murali Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane, MS Dhoni (captain, wk), Ravindrasinh Jadeja, Ishant Sharma, Zaheer Khan, Mohammed Shami

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