Cricket:South Africa declared to set England a notional 466 to win the third Test at Newlands but realistically the tourists must bat more than four-and-a-half sessions to save the match.
The hosts reached 447 for seven after 50 minutes of the fourth afternoon, the middle order having augmented the gains of captain Graeme Smith.
After 273 balls in the middle since early yesterday, and with exactly 100 of his 183 runs in fours, Smith finally went this morning – missing his hook shot from Graham Onions to give Paul Collingwood a steepling catch on the long-leg boundary.
Replays soon showed Onions had overstepped for a no-ball.
Smith was off the field by then, though - and in a match which has seen relations between these two teams deteriorate, England were long overdue a slice of fortune.
England's misery was compounded yesterday by their hosts' publically voiced suspicions of untoward treatment of the ball by England seamers Stuart Broad and James Anderson.
No official complaint was forthcoming - as it needed to be to fuel the controversy - this morning, and one glance at a lop-sided scorecard demonstrated there was no reason for South Africa to worry themselves.
The troubles, on another glorious day, were all England's, and in case Anderson was not already feeling the heat sufficiently, he also picked up a warning for running on the pitch in his follow-through from umpire Daryl Harper.
The tourists had known for some time they would have to bat at least four sessions to protect their 1-0 series lead, with one Test still to play.
The only question to be answered was the specific of how many runs Smith wanted to set. In the end, it was predictably well into record territory.
After Smith's 85-run third-wicket stand with Kallis ended, the remaining two hours of South Africa batting saw two trends broken.
Kallis surprisingly fell four short of a 53rd Test half-century - caught behind when trying to hit Anderson on the up past cover - and JP Duminy avoided a third successive first-ball duck.
In the early-afternoon chase for quick runs, AB de Villiers, Mark Boucher and Duminy all fell in the cause as Anderson and Graeme Swann finished with three expensive wickets each.
-PA