India all out for 46, their lowest ever score at home

There was no play on Day 1 and it took New Zealand all of 31.2 overs to bundle India out for 46 runs in front of a noisy Chinnaswamy crowd who had come to watch Indian batters stamp their authority. Instead, their bats were silenced.

India were all-out for 46 runs in 31.2 overs. (AFP photo)

India were all-out for 46 runs in 31.2 overs, floored by Matt Henry’s nagging length and seam movement, tall William O’Rourke’s lifting deliveries and Tim Southee’s swing. This was India’s lowest ever score playing at home and third lowest in history.

India’s capitulation raises questions whether the options they exercised were not bravado and bluster? Isn’t that the way Test cricket is played in the modern day, they might argue. As the hosts’ playing combination, picking the extra spinner in Kuldeep Yadav over pacer Akash Deep suggested, that’s how India were thinking.