Ruthless India cruise to 2-1 lead

A disciplined bowling effort set up India's comprehensive seven-wicket victory against South Africa in Dharamsala, and a 2-1 series lead with it. Put in to bat, the visitors could muster only 117 amidst regular loss of wickets despite captain Aiden Markram's fighting 61. Abhishek Sharma's early fireworks helped India make short work of the humble chase, completing the formalities with more than four overs to spare.

India deployed six bowlers and all of them were among wickets. Most of them also entered the record books. Arshdeep Singh took just four balls to make an impact as he set up Reeza Hendricks for the LBW. India had to take a DRS review to overturn the on-field call, but the early strike made Arshdeep the Indian with most PowerPlay wickets in T20Is (48) now.

At the other end, Harshit Rana similarly trapped Quinton de Kock plumb in front and had Dewald Brevis bowled in his succeeding over to reach 50 wickets in the format. Despite an expensive final over, South Africa's PowerPlay tally read only 25/3.

Next into the record books was Hardik Pandya. Straight into action after PowerPlay, the allrounder had Tristan Stubbs caught behind for his 100th scalp in T20Is, making him the only seamer to achieve the double of 1000 runs and 100 wickets in the format.

At 44/4 by the halfway mark, the visitors were desperate for a turnaround but weren't able to put together any stable partnership despite Markram holding fort at one end. Shivam Dube joined the party with his first ball of the night to send back Corbin Bosch with a nip-backer that flattened his leg-stump. Two overs later, Varun Chakravarthy became the second-quickest Indian to 50 T20I scalps when he cleaned up the dangerous Donovan Ferreira who missed his preempted slog-sweep.

He bagged his second of the night to dismiss Marco Jansen, who tried to defend a full ball only to lose his off-stump as the ball snuck through. Markram tried to up the ante, smacking two sixes and a four in a 19-run Rana over but Arshdeep returned in the penultimate over to send the South African skipper on his way after a solid 46-ball 61 that formed the bedrock of South Africa's modest 117. Birthday boy Kuldeep Yadav wrapped up the tail, picking two in the final over to get on the board.

Abhishek Sharma made his intentions clear with his early fireworks in the chase. He pulled Lungi Ngidi over fine leg first ball of the chase for a maximum, and then fetched two more boundaries in a 16-run opening over before taking on Jansen with a six and a four to end the second over. Even as Shubman Gill chipped in with a few aesthetic drives at the other end, Abhishek brought up India's fifty in just 4.1 overs with his third six of the night before holing out attempting a fourth in the final PowerPlay over.

India, however, had ticked off more than half the requirement by then. That headstart helped India absorb the pressure from the slow-down that followed once Tilak Varma had settled in. A six-over boundary-less phase consumed Gill, who chopped one back onto his stumps from Jansen.

Suryakumar Yadav broke the shackles with back-to-back fours off the returning Ngidi but the bowler had the last laugh. It was a nothing delivery, but the Indian captain failed to find the elevation in trying to dispatch it and Ottneil Baartman completed an excellent catch in the deep to send the batter back after a 11-ball 12.

Dube arrived with just nine more needed, and hit a six straight down the ground followed by a boundary more to wrap up the chase inside 16 overs.

Brief scores: South Africa 117 in 20 overs (Aiden Markram 61; Varun Chakravarthy 2-11, Arshdeep singh 2-13) lost to India 120/3 in 15.5 overs (Abhishek Sharma 35, Shubman Gill 28; Corbin Bosch 1-18) by 7 wickets