The South Africans got a taste of what lay in store for them in India with the Board President's XI toying with their pedestrian bowling on the second day of the three-day cricket tour match in Jaipur on Monday.
Dinesh Mongia led the President's batting with an unbeaten century while Mahendra Singh Dhoni brought the crowd to its feet with a cavalier innings of 39 with six boundaries and a six.
At close, the hosts were 320 for five, a lead of 94, with Mongia unbeaten on 135 and Hemang Badani on 49 not out.
Except for the failure of Dheeraj Jadhav and Sadagoppan Ramesh, other batsmen showed a positive spirit today as they put the South African bowling to the sword.
Gautam Gambhir (26) was fluent on both sides of the wicket in the morning before Venugopala Rao (29) teased the spinners with his wristy flicks in the afternoon.
For Graeme Smith, the day's proceedings portended tough days ahead in the subcontinent as his slow bowlers failed to make any kind of impact.
Justin Ontong, a top order batsman who is also expected to be the frontline spinner in the series, toiled hard for figures of 19-1-100-1. His last four overs cost 32 runs as Mongia and Badani struck eight fours off him.
Smith, who had said before the match that he considered his off-spin to be good enough to take wickets, rolled his arm for six overs and went wicketless.
It was curious then that the visitors chose to leave out for Robin Peterson, the lone specialist spinner in the squad, for this match.
Mongia, who has not played for India, since featuring in the World Cup squad last year, did himself a huge favour with his batting. He cut out the extravagant shots and focussed on playing shots to his strength.
The Punjab left-hander was involved in three partnerships with Rao, Dhoni and Badani as the President's team piled runs at a brisk pace.
After adding 56 runs with Rao for the fourth wicket that lifted the team from a precarious 61 for three, Mongia stitched a 91-run partnership for the fifth wicket with Dhoni before sharing an unbroken 112-run stand with Badani.
Rao waged a brief battle with Ontong, lunging forward to drive him through the cover and flicking from outside the off in a fashion that reminded of V V S Laxman.
The lazy elegance however brought the downfall of Andhra batsman after he had got his eye in. His 29 came off 67 balls with four fours.
Dhoni was on the roll from the moment he came to the crease. A cut to the point boundary was his first four. When Smith brought himself on, he welcomed him with a towering six over the sightscreen.
The wicketkeeper batsman, who was impressive on the India 'A' tour this season, too fell after being well set as he underedged Ontong to be caught behind. Dhoni's 39 came off 62 balls with six fours and a six.
The unbroken century stand between Mongia, who had so far faced 246 minutes and struck 16 fours, and Badani literally had the South Africans on the mat. The latter, in fact, was faster in terms of scoring rate, his 49 coming off 78 balls with eight fours.
Another worry for the tourists was Jacques Kallis returning to the dressing room after bowling only three overs. The all-rounder suffered a side strain during practice on the morning of the match and bowled from a shortened run up.
Earlier in the day, South Africa produced a disciplined bowling performance to push the hosts on the defensive.
The hosts, resuming at four for no loss, made a bright start before losing control of the proceedings.
The dead track proved a challenge to the South African fast bowlers but the visitors extracted good pace and bounce on a couple of occasions that was not seen yesterday.
The morning session saw the tourists operate all their seamers who bowled consistently at a pace to keep the batsmen on the backfoot and even surprised them with sharply rising deliveries.
One such delivery from Pollock climbed at Gambhir awkwardly and popped up for a simple catch to wicketkeeper Thami Tsolekile.
But it was not before the left-handed opener had played some exquisite shots. He rocked back to pull Makhaya Ntini to midwicket in the third over of the day before driving him through mid-off the next over.
Pollock then made a vociferous appeal for leg before against Gambhir but the Delhi batsman recovered to leg glance Hall to fine leg for another boundary. His 26 came off just 30 balls and included four fours in all.
Then the slide started. Dheeraj Jadhav (12) looked circumspect throughout before Ntini rapped him on the pads. Most disappointing was Sadagoppan Ramesh (9) who was struck plumb in front by a full-length delivery from Hall.
Scoreboard:
South Africa first innings 226-5 declared (Greame Smith 86, Justin Ontong 70; Sairaj Bahutule 4-64)
Board President's XI first innings (overnight 4-0)
D.Jadhav lbw b Ntini 12
G.Gambhir c Tsolekile b Pollock 26
S.Ramesh lbw b Hall 9
D.Mongia not out 135
Y.Venugopal Rao c Hall b de Bruyn 29
M.Dhoni c Tsolekile b Ontong 39
H.Badani not out 49
Extras (b-2 lb-16 nb-3) 21
Total (for five wickets, 93 overs) 320
Fall of wickets: 1-42 2-55 3-61 4-117 5-207
To bat: S.Bahutule, S.Paul, A.Bhandari, R.Powar
Bowling: Pollock 11-6-12-1, Ntini 15-3-48-1 (nb-1), Hall 17-4-54-1, Kallis 3-1-6-0, Ontong 19-1-100-1, de Bruyn 11-6-10-1, Smith 6-0-31-0, Amla 11-1-41-0 (nb-2).
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