Images: Vintage Kallis battles pain for 40th ton

Harbhajan Singh claimed seven wickets but Jacques Kallis battled a painful side strain to hit an unbeaten century (109) and guide South Africa to 341 in their second innings, on Day 4 of the series-deciding third Test against India in Cape Town.

Resuming at the overnight score of 52 for two, the South Africans plunged into trouble straightaway with Harbhajan removing Alviro Petersen (22) and Hashim Amla (2) in quick succession.

- Day 4 Report

- Scorecard

He also cleaned up the tail to finish with impressive figures of seven for 120 as the Indian pacers failed to live upto expectations.

India need to score 340 on the final day to win the third Test and claim their first ever series victory in South Africa.

Photographs: Reuters

Off-spinner Harbhajan struck in his very first over, second of the day, getting rid of Petersen with a ball that did quite a bit after landing on the rough just outside the off stump.

Petersen went on the backfoot and tried to defend the ball but missed it completely to be trapped leg before wicket.

Kallis, who did not bowl during India's first innings because of the rib injury, came into bat and immediately went into an attacking mode by playing his strokes.

Realising that Harbhajan was getting a lot of turn from the rough, Kallis used the reverse sweep to counter the spinner. He hit two boundaries by reverse sweeping, prompting Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni to post a fielder for that shot.

The hosts suffered a big jolt when Amla, who has been in very good form, returned to the pavilion cheaply, falling prey to Harbhajan.

Amla went down on his knee to sweep but the ball hit the pad and went on to dislodge the stump. He tried desperately to push it away with his bat but he had no chance.

Kallis and AB de Villiers tried to rebuild the crumbling innings by playing cautiously, though they played and missed a number of times.

The pair put on 34 runs for the fifth wicket before pace spearhead Zaheer Khan evicted de Villers (13) who was caught in two mind on how to deal with the ball.

De Villiers shouldered arm to an incoming delivery but the ball bounced, hit the bottom of the bat and crashed into the stumps, reducing the hosts to 98 for five.

Kallis and Ashwell prince ensured that there were no further setbacks for the team by holding fort till the lunch break.

Kallis scored his 40th Test hundred to surpass Australia's Ricky Ponting in the list of batsmen with most centuries in the longer format of the game.

He is now second only to Sachin Tendulkar, who leads the chart with an incredible figure of 51 hundreds.

Kallis defied pain in a rare exhibition of determination to go past Ponting, with whom he was tied on 39 hundreds after scoring 161 in the first innings of third Test match against India in Cape Town.

He took a single off Indian spinner Harbhajan Singh in the 94th over of the South African second innings to get to the three-figure mark.

Kallis also became only the sixth South African to score centuries in both the innings of a Test match and first to do so at home. He has now achieved the feat twice as he had earlier scored 155 and 100 not out in Karachi in 2007.

It was Kallis's eight century at Newlands ground.

Harbhajan claimed seven wickets for 120 in 38 overs, his 25th five-wicket haul in Tests, but the rest of the bowlers failed to make an impact.

Mark Boucher ended his poor run in the series as he hit 55 from 82 balls, adding 103 runs in 194 balls with Kallis.

Dale Steyn (32) and Morne Morkel (28) also made useful contributions with the bat as the last four wickets added 211 runs after South Africa were struggling at 130 six at one stage.

India face a stiff task of having to score 340 runs on the final day to win their first ever Test series in South Africa on a pitch getting increasingly difficult for batting.