Star Team India batter Virat Kohli played a superb-looking straight drive past the bowler to reach his half-century in the second ODI against England in Cardiff on Thursday, July 16.

Kohli looked in sublime touch right from the point he arrived in the middle. India lost skipper Shubman Gill in the eighth over after being asked to bat first by England skipper Harry Brook, which saw Kohli walk out to bat.

The right-handed batter showed intent from the very beginning to set the tone of his knock. He played some glorious-looking shots and dominated the opposition bowlers despite India losing a couple of wickets in quick succession.

Kohli reached his fifty in the 27th over after playing a beautiful-looking shot past the bowler. It was pitched up by Sam Curran, and the former World No.1 batter presented the full face of the bat to hit it past the English all-rounder. He looked content with his innings and raised his bat to soak in all the praise.

Watch the clip here:

This is Kohli's 14th ODI half-century against England, which is the joint second most alongside Viv Richards. He is one fifty behind Kumar Sangakkara, who has the most half-centuries against England.

Moreover, this is his 78th ODI fifty for India. He is the second in the list with the most half-centuries for the Men in Blue after Sachin Tendulkar, who has 96 fifties to his name.

After losing Gill early, Kohli and Rohit Sharma shared a 50+-run partnership to guide India past 100 runs. However, England struck back with two quick wickets of Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan.

Since then, the story has unfolded in one direction with Kohli and Shreyas Iyer taking the English bowlers to the cleaners. They dispatched the bad deliveries to the boundary to accumulate quick runs.

At the time of writing, India were at 178/3 after 31.3 overs with Iyer batting at 43 and Kohli going strong at 65.

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