India 233 (Iyer 66, Kohli 65, Archer 3-47) vs England

Bowling his final five through to the last 10 overs, Archer removed Kohli with a delivery that nipped away and took a leading edge all the way down to Adil Rashid at deep third. The ball before, Archer had found the other edge off an attempted pull, only for the ball to bounce just shy of Jos Buttler’s gloves.

That ended the biggest stand of the innings – 67 for the fourth wicket – between Kohli and Iyer. The former looked in imperious touch, channeling a rousing ovation as he walked out at 44 for 1, off the mark with a boundary driven straight off Archer that spoke to a sense of inevitability.

Archer’s removal of Kohli was followed by two-in-two when Axar Patel failed to ramp a bouncer beyond Buttler, then Shivam Dube drove back to the bowler for a smart caught-and bowled. Gurnoor Brar wore the hat-trick delivery – and another later on as Archer targeted the left-hander’s body – before eventually falling to Saqib Mahmood.

Mahmood had come in as one of two changes to replace Josh Tongue and Liam Dawson. And though he was able to add Washington Sundar to his figures after the batter flailed at a short ball, the returning quick found himself on the wrong end of a late flurry from Jasprit Bumrah.

Alongside Shreyas, who was put down on 25 by Ben Duckett at deep square leg, Bumrah looked to make hay in what India could see out in the final 10 overs, finding 18 from Mahmood’s ninth, four boundaries, three to the leg side, with one of them lifted over deep fine for six. But Bumrah finished unbeaten on 20 when Shreyas’ tame poke to Buttler and Prasidh Krishna getting his stumps rattled gave Atkinson figures of 3 for 50, with six overs still to bat.

At the halfway stage, England will feel they should be chasing a smaller target than their 234. They had a chance to remove Rohit Sharma early for 5 when, cramped for room by a length delivery from Archer, he was spilled at deep fine leg by Atkinson, failing to track the ball correctly, and getting into an awkward position before fluffing the catch onto the boundary sponge.

That being said, there was not much to rue as the 39-year old India batter struggled for his timing right through to his top-edged sweep that brought about his end on 26 off 47, looping to Buttler. Then came Ishan Kishan, a replacement for a sick KL Rahul, scoring 1 before toeing a pull shot back to Curran.

Shubman Gill, in fine form after his unbeaten 80 in the first ODI, came and went for what was, to be fair, a thrilling 31 featuring six boundaries. Four were back-to-back, split across overs from Archer and Atkinson. The skipper really should have cracked on at the ground he called home during a stint with Glamorgan in 2022.