The under-pressure bowling group, even in the absence of Jasprit Bumrah, who missed the game due to personal reasons, bounced back brilliantly to dismiss South Africa for a paltry 117 in Dharamsala on Sunday.

The batters then ensured not to make a mess of the impressive showing of the bowlers as India took 15.5 overs to overhaul the Proteas total, winning the third T20I by seven wickets to take a 2-1 lead in the series.

The South African bowlers, on their part, erred in plenty during the Powerplay, which their Indian counterparts didn’t, and that made matters easier for opener Abhishek Sharma (35 off 18 balls) to operate without pressure. Vice-captain Shubman Gill (28 off 28 balls) did reach a double-digit score, but wasn’t too comfortable during his stay in the middle before being played-on off Marco Jansen.

Captain Suryakumar Yadav’s lean patch, too, continued, but Tilak Varma and Shivam Dube took India home with 25 balls to spare.

Precisely, the pressure was never really on the batters after the bowlers kept striking in regular intervals. Yes, the Dharamsala pitch did have something in it for the quicks and a bit of variable bounce as hitting through the line didn’t always look easy.

However, credit has to be given to both Arshdeep Singh and Harshit Rana as they made good use of the new ball in the Powerplay, extracting a bit of movement as well as hitting the right channels, which went on to make a difference in the end.

Thanks to Arshdeep and Harshit, the Proteas were three down for just seven in the fourth over, before Hardik Pandya got rid of Tristan Stubbs to worsen the situation for the visitors, who were then reeling at 30/4 in over No. 7. Varun Chakravarthy, thereafter, executed his googlies to perfection to clean up both Donovan Ferreira and Jansen, thereafter, ensuring South Africa just couldn’t recover from those early blows.

If not for skipper Aiden Markram (61 off 46 balls), the Proteas team total would have fallen well short of even 100. Unfortunately for Markram, none of the others could come up with any form of application.

A bulk of the credit for this thumping win of India goes to the first spells of Arshdeep and Harshit. Under severe pressure for being mighty expensive in the previous T20I, where he had also bowled nine wides, Arshdeep was almost spot-on with his line and length, and of course, movement. Importantly, he didn’t bowl any wide on this occasion.

Beating opener Reeza Hendricks twice with away movement, Arshdeep shaped one in to trap the former LBW as India, opting to bowl first, struck in the very first over. India couldn’t have asked for anything better as Harshit also got one to jag in towards the in-form Quinton de Kock, who was adjudged LBW.

That certainly was a vital blow for India, and they had more reasons to cheer when Harshit, working up good pace, picked up his second wicket, courtesy of a poor stroke from Dewald Brevis, who dragged the ball back to his stumps. A little later, Stubbs, returning in place of David Miller, also played an equally poor shot to be caught behind off Hardik, which doubled the pressure on Markram.

The situation kept getting worse for the Proteas as all-rounder Corbin Bosch, drafted in place of medium-pacer Lutho Sipamla, got castled by Dube with one that kept a little low.

Maybe the experienced Miller’s presence could have helped South Africa in such a situation, especially with India without spinner all-rounder Axar Patel too alongside Bumrah.