A sparkling 93-run third-wicket partnership was enough to hand India a commanding eight-wicket victory over the Proteas at the 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 Tabraiz 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 106/8 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 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 17/1 in the opening six overs, their lowest in T20 internationals.
Anrich Nortjé found the edge of Virat Kohli’s bat while on three, the catch comfortably taken by De Kock 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 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 9/5 in the innings that was just 2.3 overs old at the time.
Meanwhile, Aiden Markram, who watched the carnage unfold at the other end, made a fighting 25 off 24 and seemed to survive an lbw shout from Harshal Patel. 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 Wayne Parnell and leave SA on 42/6.
Parnell and Keshav Maharaj took SA past 50 in the 12th over, adding 26 for the seventh wicket before Axar Patel had Parnell 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 Rabada before his stumps were lit up by a Harshal Patel slower delivery in the final over as SA ended on a 106/8, their sixth lowest total in T20 internationals.
Singh finished with figures of 3/32 in four overs, while Chahar and Harshal Patel said two a piece and Axar Patel one.
