A sparkling 93-run third-wicket partnership was enough to hand India a commanding eight-wicket victory against the Proteas at Greenshields International Stadium at Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday.
Suryakumar Yadav (50 runs off 33 balls) brought up an eighth T20I half-century at better than run a ball before KL Rahul (51) smacked Shamsi for a six to bring up his 19th half-century in 56 balls to take India home.
Earlier, a top-order collapse saw the Proteas stutter to 106 for 8 in 20 overs after Keshav Maharaj scored 41 off 35 to top score for the visitors.
Chasing 107 for victory, Indian captain Rohit Sharma was the first wicket of the second innings as he edged a Kagiso Rabada delivery behind to wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock for a two-ball duck.
The Proteas’ pace attack asked some pertinent questions of the Indian opening batsmen as they restricted them to 17 for 1 in the opening six overs, their lowest in T20 internationals.
Anrich Nortjé found the edge of Virat Kohli’s bat on 3, the catch comfortably taken by De Kock behind the stumps from the first delivery of his spell.
Yadav and Rahul, with contrasting roles in the innings, stood firm to give the Indians a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.
Winning the toss and asking the visitors to bat, India’s opening seamer Deepak Chahar bowled captain Temba Bavuma for a duck at the end of the first over.
That began a domino effect that saw the Proteas lose their next four batsmen for just eight runs as Arshdeep Singh dismissed Quinton de Kock (1), Rilee Rossouw (0), and David Miller (0) for a second-over hat-trick.
Chahar had Tristan Stubbs, the fourth duck of the innings, caught on the boundary to leave SA reeling on nine runs for five wickets in the innings that was just 2.3 overs old.
Meanwhile, Aiden Markram, who watched the carnage unfold at the other end, made a fighting 25 off 24 before he seemingly survived an LBW shout from Harshal Patel, but that was overturned.
Markram was originally given not out by umpire Nitin Menon, but the review by India showed the ball going on to hit the middle stump to end the 33-run partnership with Parnell and leave SA on 42 for 6.
Parnell and Keshav Maharaj took SA past 50 in the 12th over, adding 26 for the seventh wicket before the left-hander (24) before Axar Patel had him caught in the deep by Suryakumar Yadav.
Maharaj took SA past 100, hitting five boundaries and two sixes on his way to 41 off 35.
He shared a 33-run stand with Kagiso Rabada before his stumps were lit up by a Patel slower delivery in the final over as SA ended on a 106 for 8, their sixth-lowest total in T20 internationals.
Singh finished with figures of 3-32 in four, while Chahar and Patel claimed two apiece and Axar Patel one.