(Image source from: x.com/BCCI)
India took back the lead in the series by bowling out South Africa for 117 runs in favorable conditions for fast bowlers in Dharamsala. Arshdeep Singh and Harshit Rana, who stepped in for Jasprit Bumrah during his personal leave, started strong with three early wickets, while the other bowlers kept up the pressure. Aiden Markram fought back for South Africa with a fifty, but they fell at least 20 runs short of a competitive score, considering their powerful seam bowling. After Abhishek Sharma made 35 runs off 18 balls, India could handle a little hiccup during the rest of the chase. Hardik Pandya and Shivam Dube both took a wicket in their opening overs, but it was Varun Chakravarthy's remarkable four overs, giving away just 11 runs and claiming two wickets, that eliminated South Africa's hope of bouncing back. One of his wickets was Donovon Ferreira, the only other recognized batsman to score in double digits.
Arshdeep had an expensive outing in the previous match, conceding 54 runs without taking a wicket, and faced extra challenges without Bumrah. In his opening over, he showcased the ideal bowling technique for utilizing a pitch that supports bowlers in T20 cricket. He bowled three deliveries to Reeza Hendricks, all on a similar good length targeting the middle and leg stump. Two of these deliveries moved away, narrowly missing the edge, and the third angled back in to trap him in front of the wickets. Rana was effective, swinging the ball late and gaining some seam movement, but the nature of his wickets was a bit puzzling. Quinton de Kock missed a full delivery, and Dewald Brevis was out bowled playing an ambitious shot, resulting in 7 wickets down within 3.1 overs. Markram and Tristan Stubbs managed to get through the rest of the powerplay, but Stubbs appeared uncomfortable. In his first over, Pandya produced just enough movement to catch Stubbs' edge, making the score 30 for 4. Corbin Bosch, one of the three batters who were dropped in the field, missed the first ball from Dube significantly: a 124kph delivery that nipped back to hit the top of the middle stump.
In the 12th over during the match, Ferreira struck a six off a wrong'un bowled by Kuldeep without looking, marking the first boundary of the innings from a player other than Markram. This was the first occasion where India faced two strong batsmen simultaneously. The sixth partnership contributed 25 runs, but Varun dismissed Ferreira with a wrong'un that he completely misjudged. Varun repeated this success in his following over by getting Marco Jansen out with a cautious shot. Dube saw two catches slip through while bowling. Although Ferreira couldn't make a significant impact, Markram capitalized on Rana’s bowling in the 18th over, hitting his fifty and bringing South Africa's score over 100. It was now up to Markram to help South Africa reach 140, which would have been a competitive score. However, he ended up edging an easy ball from Arshdeep in the 19th over, leaving Kuldeep with two lower-order batsmen to target in the final over.
Abhishek set the pace for the chase by swiveling to pull Lungi Ngidi for a six on the first ball. He then charged at Ngidi to hit a four in the same over and followed it with a six off Jansen in the next. When Abhishek hit Ottneil Baartman for a six in the fifth over, he brought India's score to fifty and reached 44 sixes in the first six overs of T20I innings, matching KL Rahul, who achieved this in more than twice as many matches. Rohit Sharma remains the only Indian with more sixes in the first six overs. The small target allowed Abhishek's opening partner Shubman Gill to settle in, but neither he nor Tilak Varma appeared comfortable with the significant seam movement on offer. Suryakumar Yadav hit two fours but scored only 12 runs off 11 balls. While Abhishek was batting, 60 runs were scored in just 5.2 overs; the remainder of the match saw 177 runs over the next 30.3 overs. If South Africa had scored twenty more runs, and/or if Abhishek had been out earlier, the contest could have turned out much closer.
