With Pakistan chasing 136 for victory, the 39-year-old left arm spinner showed his class with a match-winning six for 43 in the second innings for a match haul of 11 wickets.
Paceman Nathan Coulter-Nile took four wickets to fire Australia to a 32-run victory over South Africa in the first one-day international in Perth on Friday.
It was not long ago that Australia wicketkeeper Tim Paine was considering giving up the game entirely. Now he is set to captain the team as they look to pick up the pieces following the ball-tampering scandal.
It is time again to return to the shortest format of cricket as leading players, including India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, get ready to represent their respective franchises in the sixth edition of the Champions League T20.
India's lower order put on a rock-solid show to help the hosts take a slender lead.
The Pakistan-born bowler made an instant impact on his return to the South Africa line-up and his team mates made sure his hard work did not go to waste as they finished the day on 128 for three wickets, a 29-run first innings lead.
With questions being raised over Sunil Narine's action again, Kolkata Knight Riders' bowling coach, Wasim Akram, says the mystery spinner will bounce back from the rough patch.
The more he has been dropped down the order - for this Test the former opener came in at number eight - the more he has accepted that his primary role is to take wickets.
Photos from Day 2 of the 3rd Test match played in Nagpur on Thursday
New England captain Joe Root rode his luck to make a battling unbeaten 184 and lift the hosts to a commanding 357 for five on the opening day of the first Test against South Africa at Lord's in London on Thursday.
The vagaries of the World Cup draw may have helped Pakistan rediscover their swagger at just the right time to push them to the brink of a quarter-final, according to captain Misbah ul-Haq.
Having decimated South Africa inside three days on a turning track in Mohali, India will again look to unleash their troika of spinners to spoil A B de Villiers's landmark 100th match when the two sides meet in the second Test, in Bangalore, on Saturday.
After the 72-run loss in the opening Test, the margin got bigger as the visitors handed the home side a 2-0 lead in the three-match series.
Outwitted in both the T20 and the ODI series, India will seek redemption in the Test format by trying to spin a web around the formidable South Africans in the four-match series starting in Mohali, on Thursday.
Opening batsman Quinton de Kock provided the early flourish with the bat with his seventh century while fast bowler Morne Morkel applied the finishing touch with four wickets as South Africa beat India by 18 runs on Sunday to take a 2-1 series lead in Rajkot, on Sunday.
Skipper Gautam Gambhir again led by example with a match-winning half-century as Kolkata Knight Riders remained in contention for play-off berth with a comprehensive nine-wicket win over table toppers Kings XI Punjab in an IPL encounter, in Cuttack on Sunday.
South Africa removed the West Indian openers in Sunday's last session at Newlands to build on AB de Villiers' superb century and take the initiative in the final Test.
Galle has built a reputation as a spinners' paradise but Australia captain Steve Smith hopes there will be substantial reverse swing at the venue as his top-ranked team bid for a series-levelling win against Sri Lanka in the second test. Sri Lanka inflicted a 106-run defeat on the touring side at Pallekele last week in the opening match of the three-test series with the spinners taking 18 out of 20 Australian wickets to fall.
Michael Clarke remained unbeaten on 161, one of the more heroic of his 27 Test hundreds, as Australia reached 494 for seven before rain brought an early tea on the second day of the series-deciding third Test against South Africa on Sunday.
Hashim Amla's blistering stroke-play and Morne Morkel's fearsome bowling put South Africa in control of the second Test against Australia as they closed the third day on 192 for four on Saturday.
Top India batsman Virat Kohli has maintained his second position in the latest ICC batsmen rankings while medium pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar has moved up a place to be seventh in the bowlers' standings.
All-rounders Ryan McLaren and Wayne Parnell were named in South Africa's 15-man squad on Wednesday for the three-match Test series against Australia starting on February 12.
India's R Ashwin back in top-10 in ICC's ODI bowling rankings
A career-best 119 from Virat Kohli lifted India to a respectable 255 for five at the close on an even opening day of the first Test against South Africa at the Wanderers on Wednesday.
Dean Elgar and Hashim Amla had given South Africa a slender lead over New Zealand at the end of the third day of the first Test on Friday, which was disrupted for 30 minutes by a fire alarm at University Oval.
Kane Williamson fought hard to establish his innings before cashing in during the final session to lead New Zealand to 177 for three at close of play on the second day of the first test against South Africa on Thursday.
South Africa resorted to dogged stonewalling in their pursuit of an improbable 481-run victory target after Ajinkya Rahane stroked his second century of the match to tighten India's grip on the fourth and final Test on Sunday.
Rajneesh Gupta presents a complete statistical IPL dossier.
AB de Villiers' masterly 85 in his 100th test could not gloss over South Africa's spin frailty as India took charge of the second Test after dominating the opening day at Bengaluru's M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Saturday.
Kolkata Knight Riders will be looking to earn two valuable points and move up to second spot in the points-table when they take on struggling Royal Challengers Bangalore.
The South African pacer however renders himself doubtful for 4th ODI
"Jinx (Ajinkya Rahane) batted well at No 3 but Virat couldn't score, this is something we will have to look at," Dhoni said.
India lead South Africa by five points and need to win two matches in order to stop falling behind the Proteas.
Carlos Brathwaite's inclusion will lift the spirits of Delhi Daredevils.
IMAGES from the 4th ODI played between India and South Africa at the Wanderers in Johannesburg on Saturday
Out of favour South African all-rounder Albie Morkel says India's hammering of the Proteas at the MCG demonstrated that the defending champions are capable of blowing any team away in the World Cup and big-ticket ICC events bring out the best in them.
To combat defending champions India in Sunday's World cup match, the South African team management has brought in Gary Kirsten, Mike Hussey and Allan Donald.
David Miller and J P Duminy scored centuries as South Africa overcame a real challenge from Zimbabwe to record a 62-run victory in their opening World Cup Pool B game in Hamilton on Sunday.
The Wanderers' pitch has coming under criticism from former cricketers and commentators for its dangerous nature.
Rain and an on-field injury which prevented South African opener Hashim Amla from batting spurred Sri Lanka to a 17-run win under the Duckworth-Lewis method in the second One-dayer in Colombo on Tuesday.
