DHARAMSALA: Arshdeep Singh led an inspired bowling attack to help India beat South Africa by seven wickets in the third T20 international on Sunday as the hosts took a 2-1 lead in the five-match series.
Left-arm quick Arshdeep returned figures of 2-13 as India bowled out South Africa for 117 after the hosts elected to field first at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium in the Himalayan hill town of Dharamsala.
Fast bowler Harshit Rana, spinners Varun Chakravarthy and Kuldeep Yadav also took two wickets each.
In reply, Indian opener Abhishek Sharma hit 35 off 18 balls as India achieved the target with 25 balls to spare to bounce back from their previous defeat in the series.
“Sport teaches you a lot of things, how you come back is more important,” said India skipper Suryakumar Yadav. “There was a lot of learning after last game in the meeting and then did what we did in Cuttack [opening match] today.”
It was the home side’s bowlers who set up victory after Arshdeep and fellow quick Rana struck in the first two overs to send back Reeza Hendricks, for a duck, and previous-match hero Quinton de Kock, for one.
Skipper Aiden Markram made a valiant 61 off 46 balls to stem the tide but the visitors continued to lose regular wickets.
Rana bowled Dewald Brevis for two, before pace bowler Hardik Pandya dismissed Tristan Stubbs for nine for his 100th T20 wicket.
Chakravarthy rattled the middle order with his mystery spin as he cut short Donovan Ferreira’s knock on 20 and then had Marco Jansen bowled for two in his next over.
Arshdeep, who was named player of the match, had Markram out and left-arm wrist spinner Kuldeep took two in the 20th over to wrap up the innings on the final ball.
“They got the ball in the right areas and before you know it we were four-five down,” said Markram. “They didn’t give us much to score off. I tried to take it deep. Whole time I thought if I got us to 140-150 it could have been a closer game.”
India started the chase briskly thanks to Sharma’s attacking knock laced with three fours and three sixes, as well his 60-run stand with fellow opener Shubman Gill (28).
Sharma fell to Corbin Bosch and Jansen took down Gill.
Suryakumar’s struggles with the bat continued as he fell for 12 off Lungi Ngidi, before Tilak
Varma (26) and Shivam Dube (10) steered the team home.
T20 specialist Suryakumar has managed just 239 runs across his last 21 innings in this format with no fifties.
SCOREBOARD
SOUTH AFRICA:
Q. de Kock lbw Rana 1
R. Hendricks lbw Singh 0
A. Markram c J. Sharma b Singh 61
D. Brevis b Rana 2
T. Stubbs c J. Sharma b Pandya 9
C. Bosch b Dube 4
D. Ferreira b Chakaravarthy 20
M. Jansen b Chakaravarthy 2
A. Nortje st J. Sharma b K. Yadav 12
L. Ngidi not out 2
O. Baartman c S. Yadav b K. Yadav 1
EXTRAS (B-1, LB-2) 3
TOTAL (all out, 20 overs) 117
FALL OF WICKETS: 1-1 (Hendricks), 2-1 (de Kock), 3-7 (Brevis), 4-30 (Stubbs), 5-44 (Bosch), 6-69 (Ferreira), 7-77 (Jansen), 8-113 (Markram), 9-115 (Nortje)
BOWLING: Singh 4-0-13-2, Rana 4-0-34-2, Pandya 3-0-23-1, Chakaravarthy 4-0-11-2, Dube 3-0-21-1, K. Yadav 2-0-12-2
INDIA:
A. Sharma c Markram b Bosch 35
S. Gill b Jansen 28
T. Varma not out 26
S. Yadav c Baartman b Ngidi 12
S. Dube not out 10
EXTRAS (LB-7, W-2) 9
TOTAL (for three wkts, 15.5 overs) 120
FALL OF WICKETS: 1-60 (A. Sharma), 2-92 (Gill), 3-109 (S. Yadav)
DID NOT BAT: H. Pandya, J. Sharma, H. Rana, K. Yadav, V. Chakaravarthy, A. Singh
BOWLING: Ngidi 3-0-23-1, Jansen 3-0-24-1 (1w), Baartman 3.5-0-34-0, Bosch 3-0-18-1, Nortje 3-0-14-0 (1w)
RESULT: India won by seven wickets.
PLAYER-OF-THE-MATCH: Arshdeep Singh
Published in Dawn, December 15th, 2025
