Bengaluru: The mighty India succumbed to their lowest total at home on a rare off day in familiar conditions before Devon Conway extended New Zealand’s advantage with a steely 91, steering them to 180 for three at stumps on day two of the first Test here on Thursday.
Daryl Mitchell (14) and Rachin Ravindra (22) were manning the crease at stumps as Kiwis built a lead of 134 runs.
Mark Henry (5/15) and William O’Rourke (4/22) engineered a batting collapse of Adelaidean proportions, dismantling India for 46, their lowest innings total at home in Tests.
India’s day was made even gloomier later as Rishabh Pant limped out of the field after a sharply-turned ball from Ravindra Jadeja slammed on to his left knee.
The visiting batters needed to build on the phenomenal effort of the bowlers, and Conway did the job to perfection.
He first added 67 runs for the opening wicket with skipper Tom Latham (15), who fell to Kuldeep Yadav, and then 75 with Will Young for the second as New Zealand marched ahead confidently.
Conway and Young (33), who was dropped on 32 by Rohit Sharma at first slip off Jadeja, staved off India’s charges.
Conway brought up his fifty in just 54 balls with a six off Ravichandran Ashwin over the bowler’s head.
Young was more fortuitous but gave brave company to Conway before perishing to Jadeja in his attempt to sweep the left-arm spinner.
Conway does not possess the proverbial left-hander’s grace but he is more the industrious kind and that was precisely New Zealand’s need on a day like this.
The 33-year-old gauged the pace and bounce of the surface to a nicety, and displayed the footwork of a boxer to negate the Indian spinners.
There was a hint of double bounce on the Chinnaswamy deck, a few balls from Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep staying ankle high but Conway was a picture of concentration.
It was quite exceptional to play over 100 balls without even a single false shot on a pitch like this and against an accomplished set of bowlers.
That until he decided to play a needless reverse sweep against Ashwin to get bowled, and he was understandably gutted while walking away.
Much before Conway’s batting masterclass, the New Zealand pacers created their own thunder under gloomy Bengaluru skies.
The duo of Henry and O’Rourke used their high release point to generate disconcerting bounce from hard lengths, which the India batters found tough to negotiate.
However, it was Tim Southee’s wobble seam and fuller length that helped New Zealand gain the first breakthrough.
Southee castled Rohit, who opted rather inexplicably to bat first in conditions which were more Christchurch than sub-continental, with a nip-backer.
Even at that point, a slip-up akin to that 36 all out in Adelaide was unimaginable.
However, that horror script from three years ago found an encore here, as India were all out shortly after lunch, comfortably beating the previous lowest of 75 they made against the West Indies at New Delhi in 1987.
Yashasvi Jaiswal, who stood a foot outside the crease to nullify swing, was all at sea against Henry in this period.
Virat Kohli (0) walked in at the rather unfamiliar No. 3 slot, but his stay was snapped after nine balls.
Latham introduced O’Rourke and the pacer immediately netted the big fish.
Kohli looked to jab a climbing delivery towards the on side but he was not in control as the ball deflected off his gloves en route to Glenn Phillips at leg gully.
Sarfaraz Khan, who came into the playing eleven after a stiff neck forced Shubman Gill to sit out, was in no mood to hang around.
On the third ball he faced, the Mumbai power-hitter tried to slap Henry over mid-off but Conway made a leap of faith to grab the ball.
At 10 for three, a lot depended on Pant (20) to bail India out of this spot of bother.
Pant, who was dropped on 7 by stumper Tom Blundell off O’Rourke, got India’s first boundary of the day in the fifth ball of the 12th over, a smash through the covers off the same bowler.
But Jaiswal’s patience did not pay off (13, 63 balls) as he fell to O’Rourke with Ajaz Patel completing a stunning catch at point.
The dismissals of KL Rahul and Jadeja pushed India further to the wall at 34 for six at lunch, and it all ended a few minutes into the second session.
