The 20-year-old from Southport won gold in a British record 26.24sec to finish just three hundredths of a second in ahead of Australian pre-race favourite and world champion Marieke Guehrer who touched in 26.27.

Another Australian, Jane Seebohm, claimed the bronze with a time of 26.29.

"I enjoy being the underdog and when there are people better than me to take down, that’s incentive to take it one step further," said Halsall.

"I changed my start a bit tonight, got up a bit earlier, got it right, did a good finish and it just happened.2

There was also good news for Scotland as Robbie Renwick claimed the team’s first victory in the Indian capital in the men’s 200m freestyle, the last final of the day.

Glasgow’s Renwick claimed victory in a time of 1min 47.88sec as he touched just before Australian pair Kenrick Monk and Thomas Fraser-Holmes respectively and admitted he was stunned by the win.

"I tried to stay relaxed; I knew Kenrick was coming back at me," said Renwick.

"This feels absolutely amazing right now."

Meanwhile, the success continued for England as Exeter’s Liam Tancock claimed the team’s second gold shortly after Halsall as he cruised to victory in the men’s 50m backstroke.

The win saw Tancock also set a Commonwealth Games record of 24.62 which saw him comfortably beat Australian pair Hayden Stoeckel and Jason Delaney into silver and bronze respectively.

"It’s a great start to the meet for us, a couple of golds,” said the victorious Tancock, who holds the 50m backstroke world title.

"It felt pretty good but it didn’t feel amazing.

"I gave it my best, though, and stroked on through to the win."

There were two more medals in the pool in a successful second day for England as Kate Haywood took bronze in the women’s 50m breaststroke, while Stephanie Millward claimed third in the Para-sport women’s S9 50m freestyle which was won by South African Paralympic legend Natalie du Toit.

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