India reclaimed the series lead by bowling South Africa  out for 117 in seam-friendly conditions in Dharamsala. Arshdeep Singh and Harshit Rana, the latter playing in the absence of Jasprit Bumrah, who was on leave for personal reasons, set the tone with three early wickets, and the support bowlers never let up. Aiden Markram kept South Africa in the fight with a half-century, but they were at least 20 runs short of what could have been a fighting total, keeping in mind their strong seam attack. Once Abhishek Sharma scored 35 off 18 balls, India could afford a wobble in the rest of the chase.

Hardik Pandya and Shivam Dube cashed in on the conditions with a wicket each in their first overs, but it was Varun Chakravarth’s four overs for 11 runs and two wickets that denied South Africa any chance of creeping back into the match. One of his victims was Donovon Ferreira, the only other recognised batter to reach double digits.

Arshdeep went for 0 for 54 in the last match, bowled an unending over, and was now without Bumrah. His first over was an example of how to bowl if you get that rare pitch that helps you in T20 cricket. He bowled three balls to Reeza Hendricks, all on a similar good length on middle and leg. Two of them seamed away to beat his outside edge, and the third nipped back in to trap him in front.

Rana swung the ball late, got some seam movement as well, but his wickets were slightly inexplicable. Quinton de Kock missed a straight and full delivery, and Dewald Brevis dragged on a long wide half volley, making it 7 for 3 in 3.1 overs.

Markram and Tristan Stubbs saw through the rest of the powerplay, but Stubbs never looked at home. In his first over, Pandya drew just enough nibble to take Stubbs’ outside edge to make it 30 for 4. Corbin Bosch, one of the three batters dropped in the field, missed the first ball from Dube by a long way: a 124kph length ball that nipped back to hit the top of middle.

In the 12th over of the innings, Ferreira hit a Kuldeep wrong’un for a no-look six, the first boundary of the innings by a batter not named Markram. This was the first time India had to deal with two threatening batters. The sixth wicket added 25 runs, but Varun got rid of Ferreira with a wrong’un that he missed by a mile. Varun repeated that dismissal in his next over, this time to a defensive push from Marco Jansen.

Dube had two catches missed off his bowling. While Ferreira couldn’t cause much damage, Markram went on to punish Rana in the 18th over, thus bringing up his fifty and taking South Africa past 100. It was all on Markram’s bat now to take South Africa to 140, a total they could have been competitive with. However, he ended up edging a slot ball from Arshdeep in the 19th over, leaving Kuldeep two tailend wickets to feast on in the last over.

Swivelling inside the line of the first ball and pulling Lungi Ngidi over fine leg for a six, Abhishek set the tone for the chase. He charged at Ngidi for a four in the same over, and went one better with a six off Jansen in the next. When Abhishek hit Ottneil Baartman for a six in the fifth over, he brought up India’s fifty and went to 44 sixes in the first six overs of T20I innings, level with KL Rahul, who did so in more than twice than the matches. Rohit Sharma is the only Indian with more sixes in the first six overs.

The low target allowed Abhishek’s opening partner Shubman Gill time to play himself in, but neither he nor Tilak Varma ever looked set with plenty of seam movement available. Suryakumar Yadav hit two fours, but managed only 12 off 11 balls. When Abhishek was at the wicket, 60 runs came in 5.2 overs; the rest of the match featured 177 in 30.3 overs. Twenty more runs for South Africa, and/or an early departure for Abhishek could have made this a much closer affair.

Brief scores:

India 120 for 3 in 15.5 overs  (Abhishek  Sharma 35, Shubman Gill 28, Tilak Varma 26*,  Suryakumar Yadav 12, Shivam Dube 10*;  Lungi Ngidi  1-23, Marco Jansen  1-24, Corbin Bosch 1-18) beat South Africa 117 in 20 overs  (Aiden Markram 61, Donovan Ferreira 20, Anrich Nortje 12; Varun Chakravarthy  2-11, Kuldeep Yadav 2-12, Arshdeep Singh 2-13, Harshit Rana 2-34, Hardik Pandya 1-23, Shivam Dube1-21) by seven wickets

(Cricinfo)