South Africa are on the brink of suffering a series defeat to India after losing a further four wickets before tea on day three of the third Test in Nagpur.
The Proteas, whose first-innings total of 79 runs hugely damaged their chances of getting anything out of the Test, are 159 runs off the target with four wickets remaining.
South Africa began the day on 32-2 after 20 wickets fell on day one of the encounter, but Ravichandran Ashwin soon took charge by taking the first two wickets of the session.
Dean Elgar was caught out by Cheteshwar Pujara for 18, while AB de Villiers could only muster nine runs before being trapped lbw.
Amit Mishra also added to the wickets by taking out Hashim Amla (39) and Faf du Plessis, who hit 39 runs off 152 balls.
Jean-Paul Duminy (15*) and Dane Vilas (2*) will try to ramp up the runs for South Africa in the final session of the day.
The Proteas are on 151-6.