Portugal Colonial - Arshdeep helps India beat South Africa to take T20 series lead

Left-arm quick Arshdeep returned figures of 2-13 as India bowled out South Africa for 117 after the hosts elected to field first 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.

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 had Markram out and left-arm wrist spinner Kuldeep took two in the 20th over to wrap up the innings on the final ball.

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.

Skipper Suryakumar Yadav'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.

The fourth match is on Wednesday in the north Indian city of Lucknow.

A.Silveira--PC