Although Pakistan managed to prise out the important wicket of Hashim Amla on the stroke of tea, South Africa still hold the upper hand on day three of the final Test with an overall lead of 217 after dismissing Pakistan for 206 just after lunch.

It took Paul Harris six deliveries to get last-man Mohammad Asif after the interval and snap Pakistan's hopes of reducing the deficit further. With their early capitulation and a confident start to South Africa's second innings, Pakistan were left ruing their mistakes as Graeme Smith and Herschelle Gibbs scored freely even with the seam movement that Umar Gul purchased off the pitch.

Mohammad Asif, however, looked out of sorts and his short deliveries were easily dispatched to the boundary by Smith. Danish Kaneria was introduced into the attack in the eighth over of the innings - with Gul swapping ends - and caused problems straight away. Smith, who was bowled by Kaneria in the first innings, was cautious against the legspinner but Gibbs was well held by Kamran Akmal as he edged a wide delivery from Gul.

Kaneria once again found much turn, beating Smith on several occasions and having a few lbw appeals turned down as the batsman failed to time the ball proeperly. Amla found it difficult to get Abdur Rehman's left-arm spin away and with three men close in on the off, opted to play against the spin in order to score. It proved to be his downfall as a straighter ball went through the gap between bat and pad. Pakistan went to tea with some momentum, though slight.

Earlier, a three-wicket maiden by Makhaya Ntini and a frailty outside the offstump left Pakistan reeling at lunch after a brief fightback by Misbah-ul-Haq and Rehman carried their team past the follow-on mark.

Losing Inzamam-ul-Haq in the second over of the day - edging Jacques Kallis' fourth ball of the match - after a nine-run first over, Pakistan slipped further when captain Shoaib Malik was caught at short leg off a quick Dale Steyn. Misbah, the overnight batsman, was then joined by Rehman as the pair looked to increase the score gradually while defending became the order of the day.

Content with taking singles where available and giving Rehman the strike, Misbah drove Kallis to extra over to take Pakistan past the follow-on and repeated the shot of Andre Nel as the duo looked at ease against the innocuous pace and line of the pace bowlers. Paul Harris, who had looked the most threatening of the bowlers on day two, was unable to get much turn off the pitch as Rehman flicked him to square leg and drove past mid-on for fours.

However, Ntini's introduction into the attack caused Misbah to hang his bat loosely outside his stumps and as the fine edge was taken by Mark Boucher, Pakistan's last hopes of matching South Africa's total had vanished. Gul played across the line next ball and was beaten by the pace and although Kaneria's edge fell short of second slip on the hat-trick ball, Ntini managed to induce another edge which completed Boucher's 400 dismissals behind the stumps.