None expected New Zealand to put up a fight against Rohit Sharma’s men at their home ground. India are unbeaten for 18 consecutive Test series at home and the Black Caps are coming off a 0-2 humiliation in Sri Lanka.

Yet, Tom Latham’s team find themselves in the driver’s seat at the end of Day 2at the Chinnaswamy in Bengaluru after the opening day was washed out because of persistent rain.

Rohit’s decision to bat first backfired as they were shot out for 46 after lunch. New Zealand too had wanted to take first strike perhaps because of the dry pitch.

Rohit was gracious enough to admit it was a wrong decision. The dry wicket has also prompted the Indian think tank to drop pacer Akash Deep and play a third spinner in Kuldeep Yadav. The visitors too played a second spinner in Glenn Phillips.

The New Zealand seam bowlers were just perfect for the overcast conditions in the first session, Matt Henry the most successful with 5/15 while William O’Rourke claimed 4/22. Five of the India batters, including Virat Kohli, were dismissed for a duck.

The conditions were not as alien as Adelaide 2020 when the team crashed for 36. But it was the Indians’ repeated tendency to slash outside the off stump that resulted in playing umpteen false shots which ultimately cost them dear.

Rishabh Pant was the top scorer with 20. He led a charmed life and was also dropped once before he eventually ran out of luck.

New Zealand were ahead by 134 runs at the close having reached 180/3.

“It was quite nice when those clouds started coming in after the toss was done, but I think we were expecting it to be probably a flatter wicket, but there was plenty of assistance this morning, so it was great that we could make the most of it,” Henry said after the day’s play.

The Indians were all at sea against the seam and swing and Rohit’s attempt to break the shackles by coming down the track ended in disaster and opened the floodgates.

“We talked about being relentless with the ball, and being patient, and I think that was probably something that we looked to do, and thankfully it came off,” Henry said.

“It has been rain-affected already, and I think it’s important to have a day like today where we can hopefully keep applying pressure. Things happen fast in India, so we can’t be complacent at all, we’ve just got to keep mounting pressure.”

New Zealand’s catching was arguably as good as their seam bowling, if not better.

The bowlers’ efforts were complemented by Devon Conway’s dogged 91. The left-hander struggled against Jasprit Bumrah’s newball spell but found ways to hang in there.