Advantage SA !! India surrenders initiative

Anil Kumble (AK) must have had dreams of repeating his New Delhi 10 wickets haul, when he saw a dust bowl at Newlands but alas, at the end of day 2, India seems to have given the advantage back to SA. They could have easily scored 550+ on a flat track like this but as in the past, some unknown spinner turning the ball squarely tied them up in knots. (I am not agreeing with this myth that Indian batsmen are good players of spin. On the contrary, most of current Indian test squad played hardly any domestic long version games and hence more or less are as suspect against genuine spin as against genuine pace. This was proved repeatedly when they fell to even 2nd tier spinners in important tests like the one against England at B'bay last year).
The 1st day efforts of Jaffer and makeshift Karthik was praise worthy. Jaffer was at his fluent best and played a nice knock and Karthik survived the new ball and helped in putting together the best Indian partnership for the series. The Pak umpire saw to it that we do not miss Mark Benson much by giving Karthik out but more than that, Dravid's dismissal after another 20+ score annulled the good work of openers. Sachin too could have taken his score beyond 100 but fell to an innocous left arm spinner delivery. Amidst falling wickets, SG did the best possible and for once- the Indian tail was a let down too, when they came back for some 20 odd - loosing the last 4/5. In the end, the Indian score is perhaps less by 150 or so from where they should have been.
Sreesanth struck early in SA innings but Smith ensured that the tempo with which he began (1st ball 6 off Zaheer) is not let down. 1st innings lead or SA coming close to India score looks on the cards since AK has been unable to look threatening. That leaves only one possibile result - India will have to fight real hard to save this test from here on.