England will head into the final session on 149/4 on the first day of the second Test at Newlands in Cape Town.
The Proteas bowlers continued to chip away at the English batsmen during the middle session with Anrich Nortje and Keshav Maharaj picking up vital wickets.
Resuming after lunch with the score on 67/2, Joe Denly and Joe Root looked to build a solid partnership for the fourth wicket with the England skipper being quite aggressive.
Root came out firing after the lunch break and was particularly strong off the back foot, cutting away any delivery just slightly short and wide.
He was dropped on 31 though by Rassie van der Dussen, who was also responsible for two missed chances in Centurion, from the bowling of Nortje.
Nortje found the edge of Root’s bat but Van der Dussen was unable to hold on to the catch with his hands stretched out above his head.
Nortje got his man two balls later though. Pitching it short and Root failing to duck away in time, the ball graced his glove and went straight up into the air and into De Kock’s gloves.
The Proteas’ appeal was a halfhearted one before Root started walking off, deserved reward for Nortje who was sublime with his line and length towards both right handers.
Maharaj was also rewarded for his persistence with the wicket of Denly as he added pressure from the Kelvin Grove End. The spinner, who has bowled the most overs of all the Proteas’ bowlers so far today, was slightly short at times against Root but he produced a ripper to Denly, which was missed by the England opener and clipped the top of off-stump.
England will now be looking to Ben Stokes to score them some runs and deliver a similar showing like the last time he played a test match at Newlands. Stokes smashed 258 of 198 deliveries when the two countries met in Cape Town in 2016.
He will resume on 28 for the final session of the day with Ollie Pope at the other end on 5.
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South Africa: Pieter Malan, Dean Elgar, Zubayr Hamza, Faf du Plessis (captain), Rassie van der Dussen, Quinton de Kock (wicketkeeper), Dwaine Pretorius, Vernon Philander, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje.
England: Dominic Sibley, Zak Crawley, Joe Denly, Joe Root (captain), Ben Stokes, Ollie Pope, Jos Buttler (wicketkeeper), Sam Curran, Dominic Bess, Stuart Broad, James Anderson.
