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Vaibhav Sooryavanshi was both headline act and bit-part player on a chill, windswept Manchester afternoon, making his hotly-anticipated debut to become, at 15 years and 99 days, the youngest ever Indian men’s international and the second youngest in all formats and from all full member nations.

But it was England’s youngest player, even if Jacob Bethell is a comparative veteran at 22, who decided the game and effectively did so in the space of a single over, their 17th and Ravi Bishnoi’s fourth, from which he plundered a match-turning 29. Thanks in large part to Bethell’s 76 off 46 England eventually cantered to victory by four wickets, and with an over to spare.

On the ground where England scored a record 304 on their last appearance, with wind whipping across the outfield in the direction of the shorter boundary, and with its afternoon start meaning the game coincided with peak TV viewing time at home, India decided this was the moment to blood their teenage prodigy.

But while Sooryavanshi, for all the publicity he has attracted since he made his Indian Premier League debut at the improbable age of 13, is a bit of an unknown quantity in this country, India know all about Bethell, who scored a brilliant century in a losing cause when these teams met in the T20 World Cup semi-final in March. This time his efforts were rewarded.

Sooryavanshi’s innings lasted just 10 balls, and though two of them disappeared into the crowd – including the first delivery he faced from his Rajasthan Royals teammate Jofra Archer, lofted over his right shoulder while on one knee, an extraordinary shot – this was a hint of his promise rather than a full demonstration. He was stumped by Jos Buttler off the bowling of Will Jacks for 14. In the end history was made by openers of both sides, as for the first time in T20s neither of England’s managed a run.

After that discombobulating start they struggled to tuck in to the diet of spin India chose to feed them, and despite a brilliant cameo from Harry Brook – who savaged Arshdeep Singh in particular on his way to 39 off 15 – theirs looked a vain chase. Until, that is, Bishnoi started that over with a back-foot no ball, Bethell despatched the free hit for six, and then another no ball led to another free hit and another six, and on it went from there.

Despite Sooryavanshi’s lack of impact, and thanks instead to their other opener, Abhishek Sharma, and Ishan Kishan, India surged to 130 after 13 overs and seemed on course for a total well above 200. But England quietened them for a while, Sam Curran excelling in this period with two wickets – and a drop in the deep from Archer, the TV umpire deciding he grounded a catch off Tilak Varma – for 10 runs off two.

Tilak had one run at that point but ended with 24 off 11, with Archer paying the price for his misjudgment as he hit two sixes and a four off successive deliveries in the final over of the innings.

India’s 190 for seven was the most marginal improvement on the 189 for seven that England had declared under-par in the ran-abridged first game of the series. And despite England’s abysmal start with the bat, both Phil Salt and Buttler dismissed by Arshdeep in the first over, it was not enough here. Three of Arshdeep’s overs were excellent; Brook savaged his other one for 27, as a result of which after three overs England were on 32 and Brook on 31. India might have coped with that, but Bishnoi and his curious, parabolic and unreliable run-up carried the game beyond them.