diff --git a/datafusion/physical-plan/src/sorts/sort.rs b/datafusion/physical-plan/src/sorts/sort.rs
index 635b93b81b12..08e1fe076055 100644
--- a/datafusion/physical-plan/src/sorts/sort.rs
+++ b/datafusion/physical-plan/src/sorts/sort.rs
@@ -45,9 +45,11 @@ use crate::{
 };
 
 use arrow::array::{
-    Array, RecordBatch, RecordBatchOptions, StringViewArray, UInt32Array,
+    Array, ArrayRef, RecordBatch, RecordBatchOptions, StringViewArray, UInt32Array,
+};
+use arrow::compute::{
+    concat, interleave_record_batch, lexsort_to_indices, take_arrays, SortColumn,
 };
-use arrow::compute::{concat_batches, lexsort_to_indices, take_arrays, SortColumn};
 use arrow::datatypes::{DataType, SchemaRef};
 use arrow::row::{RowConverter, Rows, SortField};
 use datafusion_common::{
@@ -674,16 +676,35 @@ impl ExternalSorter {
             return self.sort_batch_stream(batch, metrics, reservation);
         }
 
-        // If less than sort_in_place_threshold_bytes, concatenate and sort in place
-        if self.reservation.size() < self.sort_in_place_threshold_bytes {
-            // Concatenate memory batches together and sort
-            let batch = concat_batches(&self.schema, &self.in_mem_batches)?;
+        // If less than sort_in_place_threshold_bytes, we sort in memory.
+        // Note:
+        // In theory we should always be able to sort in place, but some corner cases for merging testing
+        // failed, so we set a large threshold to avoid that.
+        // Also, we only support sort expressions with less than 3 columns for now. Because from testing, when
+        // columns > 3, the performance of in-place sort is worse than sort/merge.
+        // Need to further investigate the performance of in-place sort when columns > 3.
+        if self.expr.len() <= 2
+            && self.reservation.size() < self.sort_in_place_threshold_bytes
+        {
+            let interleave_indices = self.build_sorted_indices(
+                self.in_mem_batches.as_slice(),
+                Arc::clone(&self.expr),
+            )?;
+
+            let batches: Vec<&RecordBatch> = self.in_mem_batches.iter().collect();
+            let sorted_batch = interleave_record_batch(&batches, &interleave_indices)?;
+
             self.in_mem_batches.clear();
             self.reservation
-                .try_resize(get_reserved_byte_for_record_batch(&batch))
+                .try_resize(get_reserved_byte_for_record_batch(&sorted_batch))
                 .map_err(Self::err_with_oom_context)?;
-            let reservation = self.reservation.take();
-            return self.sort_batch_stream(batch, metrics, reservation);
+
+            metrics.record_output(sorted_batch.num_rows());
+
+            return Ok(Box::pin(RecordBatchStreamAdapter::new(
+                Arc::clone(&self.schema),
+                futures::stream::once(async { Ok(sorted_batch) }),
+            )) as SendableRecordBatchStream);
         }
 
         let streams = std::mem::take(&mut self.in_mem_batches)
@@ -711,6 +732,78 @@ impl ExternalSorter {
             .build()
     }
 
+    fn build_sorted_indices(
+        &self,
+        current_batches: &[RecordBatch],
+        expr: Arc<[PhysicalSortExpr]>,
+    ) -> Result<Vec<(usize, usize)>> {
+        // ===== Phase 1: Build global sort columns for each sort expression =====
+        // For each sort expression, evaluate and collect the corresponding sort column from each in-memory batch
+        // Here, `self.expr` is a list of sort expressions, each providing `evaluate_to_sort_column()`,
+        // which returns an ArrayRef (in `.values`) and sort options (`options`)
+
+        // ```text
+        // columns_by_expr for example:
+        // ├── expr_0 ──┬── ArrayRef_0_0 (from batch_0)
+        // │            ├── ArrayRef_0_1 (from batch_1)
+        // │            └── ArrayRef_0_2 (from batch_2)
+        // ├── expr_1 ──┬── ArrayRef_1_0 (from batch_0)
+        // │            ├── ArrayRef_1_1 (from batch_1)
+        // │            └── ArrayRef_1_2 (from batch_2)
+        // ```
+        let mut columns_by_expr: Vec<Vec<ArrayRef>> = expr
+            .iter()
+            .map(|_| Vec::with_capacity(current_batches.len()))
+            .collect();
+
+        for batch in current_batches {
+            for (i, e) in expr.iter().enumerate() {
+                let col = e.evaluate_to_sort_column(batch)?.values;
+                columns_by_expr[i].push(col);
+            }
+        }
+
+        // For each sort expression, concatenate arrays from all batches into one global array
+        let mut sort_columns = Vec::with_capacity(expr.len());
+        for (arrays, e) in columns_by_expr.into_iter().zip(expr.iter()) {
+            let array = concat(
+                &arrays
+                    .iter()
+                    .map(|a| a.as_ref())
+                    .collect::<Vec<&dyn Array>>(),
+            )?;
+            sort_columns.push(SortColumn {
+                values: array,
+                options: e.options.into(),
+            });
+        }
+
+        // ===== Phase 2: Compute global sorted indices =====
+        // Use `lexsort_to_indices` to get global row indices in sorted order (as if all batches were concatenated)
+        let indices = if !is_multi_column_with_lists(&sort_columns) {
+            lexsort_to_indices(&sort_columns, None)?
+        } else {
+            lexsort_to_indices_multi_columns(sort_columns, None)?
+        };
+
+        // Phase 3: Prepare indices for interleaving
+        let batch_indices: Vec<(usize, usize)> = current_batches
+            .iter()
+            .enumerate()
+            .flat_map(|(batch_id, batch)| {
+                (0..batch.num_rows()).map(move |i| (batch_id, i))
+            })
+            .collect();
+
+        let interleave_indices: Vec<(usize, usize)> = indices
+            .values()
+            .iter()
+            .map(|x| batch_indices[*x as usize])
+            .collect();
+
+        Ok(interleave_indices)
+    }
+
     /// Sorts a single `RecordBatch` into a single stream.
     ///
     /// `reservation` accounts for the memory used by this batch and
@@ -1382,7 +1475,7 @@ mod tests {
     use crate::test::TestMemoryExec;
 
     use arrow::array::*;
-    use arrow::compute::SortOptions;
+    use arrow::compute::{concat_batches, SortOptions};
     use arrow::datatypes::*;
     use datafusion_common::cast::as_primitive_array;
     use datafusion_common::test_util::batches_to_string;