Fourteen wickets fell on the fourth day which closed with England narrow favourites to win the Test match.
 |  Graeme Smith's good fortune has now clearly deserted him |
Although very few batsmen were actual victims of the pitch, the fact the bounce was so erratic was the cause of most of the dismissals.
Batsmen hovered uncertainly in their crease, or flashed unnecessarily outside off-stump, unsettled by the conditions which will not get any easier.
Had England - and Flintoff in particular - had an ounce of luck, South Africa would have been in really deep trouble.
While his colleagues have profited from the batsmen edging into their stumps this summer, nothing has gone Flintoff's way at all.
In one particularly torrid over, McKenzie came within a whisker of playing on twice - but he remains to fight for the 139 more runs South Africa need in the morning.
The force had seemed to be with the visitors ever since Stewart dropped Kallis early on the third morning.
Let off the hook and with England's momentum interrupted by that difficult opportunity, South Africa recovered from 132-5 to score 362.
They retained their control on Sunday by skittling England for only 118.
Pollock led the way with 6-39 as only three batsmen - Hussain, Flintoff and Giles - reached double figures.
 Kirtley grabbed two wickets on the fourth evening in a good display |
Again, the pitch sowed seeds of doubt in the players' minds rather than directly accounting for their downfall, and 118 seemed at least 70 runs light.
South Africa moved on to 22-0 with only occasional alarms, but Graeme Smith's good fortune has now clearly deserted him.
Out hit wicket in the first innings, he was despatched lbw by umpire Harper in the second, despite the ball deflecting from an admittedly thin inside edge.
Rudolph fell in Kirtley's next over, palpably lbw for a duck, and the game was alive again.
Gibbs is always dangerous in these situations because he can score so freely.
He played a couple of lovely drives before attempting to pull Harmison, but succeeded only in top-edging a catch to mid-on.
Dippenaar casually flicked a catch to mid-wicket to leave South Africa on 41-4, and the major blow was struck when Kallis - to prove my earlier point - dragged a harmless delivery from Anderson onto his stumps for 13.
McKenzie and Boucher, who both played so well in the first innings, hung on until the light deteriorated, and they will resume in the morning as we head towards a nail-biting conclusion.
MMIX
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