India collapsed to their lowest Test score on home soil after Matt Henry and William O’Rourke helped New Zealand bowl out the hosts for just 46 runs on the second day of the first match in Bengaluru.

After the opening day was marred by rain, India immediately regretted their decision to bat first as the seamers took center stage. Henry took five for 15 while O’Rourke returned four for 22, condemning Rohit Sharma’s team to their third-worst five-day total. This narrowly exceeded the 36 in Australia in 2020 and the 42 in England 50 years ago.

Devon Conway’s quick 91 from 105 balls, including three sixes and 11 fours, took the Black Caps to 180 for three and a lead of 134 at stumps, but the story of the day belonged to India’s dramatic collapse. Rohit was the first to go, charging towards Tim Southee but was undone by an off-field move and bowled before O’Rourke took the prize wicket of Virat Kohli for a nine-ball duck. Sarfaraz Khan chipped tamely to middle to give Henry his first chip and while Yashasvi Jaiswal and Rishabh Pant – the only two batters to reach double figures – scored 21, India slipped from 31 for three to 34 for seven.

KL Rahul, Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin headed for the ducks after Jaiswal scored 13. Pant top-scored 20 as Henry moved to 100 Test wickets, and O’Rourke cleaned up in a remarkable passage of play as India were all out in 31.2 overs.

“You see (the field) and try to make a judgment call. Sometimes you make the right decision and sometimes you don’t,” Rohit said. “It hurts me a little bit because I made that decision… We didn’t respond well to the challenges that were presented to us and found ourselves in a situation where we were thrown out with 46 points. As a captain, it definitely hurts to see that number.”

New Zealand’s opener overcame India’s poor tally in the 13th over, with Conway leading the attack on the spinners. He might have been stumped at 89, but Pant failed to compose himself and appeared to be in pain after the ball crashed into his knee, and Dhruv Jurel took over the wicketkeeping duties from then on.

It wasn’t a costly mistake as Conway missed nine from a hundred when he missed a reverse sweep from Ashwin and was bowled. However, New Zealand was firmly on the rise.