England levelled the series with a painstaking chase of 234, headlined by their in-house run-machine, Joe Root. Eventually, he did not have enough runs remaining to tick off a well-deserved hundred, but as he walked off on 99*, soaking in the cheers in Cardiff, Root had re-emphasised his unfailing position in England's ODI setup. There's plenty else to sort out for them.

No less for India, who were hurt by a middle-order collapse, and saw their bowling fall flat against Root's rigid defiance. In the end, they just did not have enough on the board to fight hard.

Here's a recap of the talking points from the Cardiff ODI:

Rohit labours through

Shubman Gill was delightfully intent-driven, showing the straight blade, walking out and creaming deliveries through covers and cutting fiercely. He departed reluctantly after another cracking shot ended in a sharp catch. Rohit Sharma was his polar opposite. Largely disengaged, his first real scoring shot came in the 12th over, having already benefitted from a dropped catch earlier. Aside from that six off Atkinson, Rohit misjudged the short one at least twice, failing to adjust to the damp surface.

This, despite England being predictable and too full: in the first 10 overs, they conceded 34 runs off 20 full balls. Those made up for most of the early run-scoring, even as Rohit ambled to his slowest 25+ score in ODIs by strike-rate. He played 29.1% false shots: only once had he faced 40+ balls in the last 12 years with a higher false shot percentage. After a sequence of nine dots, he was out trying to sweep Will Jacks.

Kohli's ODI juggernaut rolls on

It's his format. It's his realm. A rare blip in the first game aside, Virat Kohli continues to reach new heights in ODIs. He now has seven 50+ scores in his last nine ODIs, with this being the 132nd of his career. In Cardiff, he began with a stylish down-the-ground four off Jofra Archer and reeled off boundaries off the front foot with fluidity.

But the hallmark of his ODI greatness - running between the wickets - was the engine of the knock, and at one point, his partnership with Shreyas Iyer promised to take India past 300. The long, boundary-less patches felt slightly odd in parts: after no fours in 21 balls, he succumbed to an Archer short ball.

Archer stings middle order

Harry Brook has largely been good at switching around his bowlers. When Kohli came in, he pressed Adil Rashid into action. He could have arguably brought in Sam Curran earlier against Rohit, but the opener's knock barely dented England anyway. It was the call to bring back Archer in the 31st over that paid instant dividends: Kohli was out caught one ball after an umpire review. It led to a sudden stall of the India innings. Iyer applied himself well: short balls did not bother him, and against the spinners, he used his feet as well as he does. But he rapidly ran out of partners. From 178/3, India fell to 193/7.

Questions over the middle order will continue to echo around, and the gap was evident with KL Rahul not playing today. If it wasn't for Jasprit Bumrah's sweet cameo, India would have barely scratched over 200.

Bully Bumrah roughs up top order

On a surface that was easier to bat in the second half, England were stung by a Bumrah special first up, and for the next half hour, he bullied his way around. Jacob Bethell was nearly taken out by a snappy yorker, and Joe Root almost lost his timber too. The accuracy was suffocating, ball after ball: Root was happy to hang back, but Brook refused to. Bumrah finished with 1-17 from his first four before he was switched out, ably supported by Prasidh Krishna from the other end, who mixed his lengths well. But England still managed to build up to 51/2 before the restrictions eased.

Gill mixes up one-down attack

Root was naturally the key for England, even if the chase wasn't daunting. Brook gallivanted and perished, but Root was in his usual Zen-like space, trusting his defence and nurdling the ball around without much fuss. Sam Curran was bumped up over Jos Buttler, who was saved from a matchup against Washington Sundar, the off-spinner out of the field due to a hamstring issue. As the margin thinned and Buttler took off with a couple of big hits, Gill immediately re-installed Krishna and Bumrah into the attack. When Buttler was dismissed by Axar Patel, he called back Gurnoor Brar.

There was no scope to play the waiting game: by the 30th over, he brought back Shivam Dube, pinning Root to the crease with Ishan Kishan up to the stumps. Aggression was the only way out for India.

There's no stopping Root

With Axar from one end, the ball was gripping off the surface: he got sharp drift and darted the ball at the stumps, but Root kept chipping away. Against Dube, he hung back and accessed the space behind square without any trouble, employing a faultless, risky-free approach. All he needed was a partner to take them through. He got that in Jacks.

Even as Dube tried to tease them with slow, short balls, Jacks and Root went along untempted. For 50 balls, no boundaries came, but India still couldn't strangle them to find a way back. Root marched along for his fifth ODI fifty in a row.

Too late for the short-ball plan

Gill had two overs of Bumrah and held him back until the 41st over. The timing was curious, but what was more baffling was the short-ball plan that suddenly surfaced in the over before that. Brar almost had Jacks, but a fielding misjudgment saved him, only for one ball. He was out the next ball, trying to tame another short ball. It was the only moment of the evening that left Root visibly ruffled.

A fine ploy, but one that came too late. When Atkinson top-edged Bumrah for a six in the final over, and was hit on the helmet soon after, one could only wonder how it could have made a difference earlier in the chase.