NAGPUR (India) (AFP) South Africa were eyeing victory after Dale Steyn picked a career-best 7-51 to trigger a dramatic India collapse on the third day of the first Test on Monday. The right-arm quick polished off the last six India wickets for 12 runs in 7.4 overs after tea to bundle them out for 233 and help the visitors enforce the follow-on at the Vidarbha Cricket Association stadium in Nagpur. Following on, India were tottering at 66-2, trailing South Africa by 259 runs on first innings with eight wickets in hand. Murali Vijay was batting on 27 with Sachin Tendulkar on 15 when stumps were drawn for the day. Steyn struck again in Indias second innings, sending back Virender Sehwag for 16 while Morne Morkel pegged back the off-stump of the other opener, Gautam Gambhir (one). Indias slide began with the dismissal of skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni (six) in the first over after the tea break. Subramaniam Badrinaths resistance in his first Test appearance was cut short in the next over when he chipped Steyn straight to short mid-wicket. His 56-run innings came off 139 balls and included seven fours. The other debutant, Wriddhiman Saha was out off the first ball he faced from Steyn. Zaheer Khan and Amit Mishra played on to their stumps before Harbhajan Singh was trapped lbw, giving Steyn his 13th five-wicket haul in 37 Tests. The only positive for India was the 109-run knock by Sehwag who hit 15 fours and also shared 136 runs for the fourth wicket with Badrinath after India were reeling at 56-3. But Sehwag was dismissed shortly after reaching his 18th Test century when he sliced a quite wide delivery from paceman Wayne Parnell (1-31) to cover where Jean-Paul Duminy took a well-judged catch. Replying to South Africas first innings 558-6 declared, India were off to a disastrous start, losing their three top-order wickets inside the first hour. Steyn got rid of Tendulkar (seven) and Vijay (four) after Morkel (1-58) had dismissed Gambhir (12) to reduce the hosts to 119-3 at lunch. Gambhir, coming into the series with eight centuries in his last 11 Tests, was out off the first ball he faced when he was caught by wicketkeeper Mark Boucher after poking at an away-going delivery. The second and final Test between the worlds top two teams begins in Kolkata on February 14. South Africa can snatch back the number one Test ranking from India if they win the series while the hosts need just a draw to remain on top. Steyn credits performance to planning South Africa fast bowler Dale Steyn attributed his success with the ball on Monday to detailed planning before the start of the two-Test series against India. Steyn, 26, picked up a career-best seven wickets for 51 runs to rout Indias first innings for 233 on the third day of the first Test at the Vidarbha Cricket Association stadium in Nagpur. He then took his eighth wicket of the match when he had Virender Sehwag caught in the slips for 16 during Indias follow on. This type of stuff just doesnt happen out in the middle. We have really planned it. Steyns performance brought back memories of the 2008 Ahmedabad Test where he collected five wickets to bowl out India for 76 and set up a memorable South Africa victory. Steyn was almost unplayable after the tea break Monday, rattling the stumps thrice with his devastating reverse swing. It is something I have been working a lot with in the nets, he said. I dont want to reveal all my secrets. You work on these things and then its nice to see guys shoulder arms and then the ball cannons into the stumps. I got (Ian) Bell like that in Johannesburg and that was where it started from. Its a skill that you have to have in your armoury as a pace bowler. Steyn said he set up Murali Vijay, batting at number three in place of an injured Rahud Dravid, before finally getting his scalp. I worked him (Vijay) out quite nicely with two balls that went away and then bringing one back in which he left. The bowler, who has claimed 193 wickets from 37 Tests so far, also revealed that coach Corrie van Zyls words motivated him to go after the Indian batting. Corrie sat us down at tea and said that the session after lunch wasnt good enough. We didnt get the wickets that we wanted. He said youve already been out in the field four hours and now youve got to go and do another two. Little speeches like that can really lift the players a lot. SCOREBOARD SOUTH AFRICA, first innings: 558-6 decl INDIA, first innings G. Gambhir c Boucher b Morkel 12 V. Sehwag c Duminy b Parnell 109 M. Vijay b Steyn 4 Tendulkar c Boucher b Steyn 7 Badrinath c Prince b Steyn 56 MS Dhoni c Kallis b Harris 6 W. Saha b Steyn 0 H. Singh lbw b Steyn 8 Z. Khan b Steyn 2 A. Mishra b Steyn 0 I. Sharma not out 0 EXTRAS: (b13, lb7, nb4, w5) 29 TOTAL: (for all out in 64.4 overs) 233 Fall of wickets: 1-31 (Gambhir), 2-40 (Vijay), 3-56 (Tendulkar), 4-192 (Sehwag), 5-221 (Dhoni), 6-221 (Badrinath), 7-222 (Saha), 8-226 (Zaheer), 9-228 (Mishra), 10-233 (Harbhajan). BOWLING Steyn 16.4-6-51-7 Morkel 15-4-58-1 (nb4) Harris 17-2-39-1 Parnell 7-1-31-1 (w5) Kallis 6-0-14-0 Duminy 3-0-20-0. INDIA, second innings (following on) G. Gambhir b Morkel 1 V. Sehwag c Smith b Steyn 16 M. Vijay not out 27 S. Tendulkar not out 15 EXTRAS: (b2, w5) 7 TOTAL: (for two wickets in 23 overs) 66 Fall of wickets: 1-1 (Gambhir), 2-24 (Sehwag). BOWLING Steyn 4-0-14-1 Morkel 6-2-21-1 (w5) Parnell 2-0-12-0 Harris 7-3-12-0 Kallis 4-2-5-0