Off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin struck twice in his first over as India dominated the opening session of the second Test against South Africa at the Chinnaswamy stadium in Bangalore on Saturday.
The Proteas, down 1-0 in the four-match series, lost three top-order wickets after being sent in to bat in overcast conditions before going to lunch on the first day at 78 for three.
Ashwin, who came on to bowl the eighth over, trapped Stiaan van Zyl (10) leg-before with his second delivery and had Faf du Plessis (0) caught at short-leg by Cheteshwar Pujara off the fifth to make it 15-2.
Fast bowler Varun Aaron claimed the key wicket of Hashim Amla (7) in the 15th over, uprooting the captain’s off-stump as the Proteas were reduced to 45-3.
AB de Villiers was welcomed to the crease in his 100th Test appearance with loud cheers from some 15,000 fans who regard him as one of their own due to his stint with the Bangalore team in the Indian Premier League.
De Villiers got off the mark with five runs, courtesy of an overthrow by Indian captain Virat Kohli that raced to the fence.
The South African star followed that with a sweetly-timed on-drive off Aaron for a boundary and pulled Ashwin to the square-leg fence.
At lunch, De Villiers was unbeaten on 19 and opener Dean Elgar was on 38, the pair having put on 33 runs for the fourth wicket.
India made two changes from the side that won the first Test in Mohali by 108 runs, bringing in premier fast bowler Ishant Sharma and all-rounder Stuart Binny in place of Umesh Yadav and Amit Mishra.
South Africa replaced the injured pace duo of Dale Steyn and Vernon Philander with Morne Morkel and Kyle Abbott.
The Proteas also brought in all-rounder JP Duminy, who missed the first Test due to injury, in place of off-spinner Simon Harmer.