India is five wickets away from its first Test win in South Africa while the home team needs 239 more runs if it is to win the first Test of the series, in Johannesburg.
Set a target of 402 to win, South Africa was on the precipice at 163-5 at stumps with Ashwell Prince defiant on 54 and Mark Boucher with him on 23.
It was another tough day for the home side which saw VVS Laxman carry on to reacy 73 with assistance from Zaheer Khan (37) who helped add 70 vital runs for the eighth wicket.
India was finally all out for 236 with Shaun Pollock taking 3-33, Andre Nel 3-58 and Makhaya Ntini 3-77.
Khan then played another useful role when dismissing Herschelle Gibbs for a duck in his first over.
Sreesanth then entered the picture again to claim both Graeme Smith (17) and Hashim Amla (10) to leave South Africa reeling at 34-3.
Jacques Kallis joined Prince and they lifted the score to 84 before Sreesanth had Kallis caught for 27. AB de Villiers looked set for a long haul only to be run out by Khan when on 17 and with South Africa on 120.
Boucher joined Prince to add another 43 runs before stumps.
Sreesanth ended the day with 3-47.
