If you were to imagine a scenario in which New Zealand, after a 2-0 defeat in Sri Lanka, would challenge India in India – unbeaten for 18 consecutive series at home – the fantasy would have been quite close, if not exactly like what happened happened in Bengaluru. It had rained in the build-up to the Test, the first day was washed out, overcast skies were expected, and in the final stretch of fantasy you would expect New Zealand to slot India in and run through.

The last bit of it actually changed a bit. New Zealand wanted to bat first but was denied a death wish by India. This is due to the dry field. If anything, India were clearer in what they wanted to do: bat first and play three spinners. New Zealand’s second spinner was Glenn Phillips, and they still wanted to bat first.

When both sides misjudged the conditions and India were the unlucky ones to win the toss, the New Zealand bowlers were simply perfect for the conditions. No drive balls, about half the balls at good length, and the extra bounce for O’Rourke.

Yashasvi Jaiswal started to leave the ball behind but drove loosely to just the twelfth ball he faced. There was no reason why he should have shot that ball in particular: it was neither too high nor too wide. He tried to walk towards the bowlers to reduce the movement but there were 21 false shots in his 63-ball stay, 10 of them drives and aggressive shots. He might as well have made a shot that looked ugly.

Rohit Sharma was not so lucky. The first time he tried to bat out, he was bowled. Rishabh Pant enjoyed Jaiswal-like luck, surviving 20 false shots and a missed catch before going to second slip. Sarfaraz Khan, asked to bat higher than he does in domestic cricket, unsuccessfully took the third ball from the attacking option.

While it sounds brave and selfless for Virat Kohli and Sarfaraz to move out of position, India will also be wondering if KL Rahul wasn’t the best man for No. 3 in the circumstances. Rahul is one of only two Asian opening batsmen to have scored a century in all three countries of Australia, South Africa and England. Rahul’s determined old-fashioned grinding of England, in partnership with Rohit, was the reason why India drew 2-2 in England.

If India had had a week to prepare for the conditions in Bengaluru, chances are they would have conceded in the same manner. Instead, they did what came instinctively to most of them: counterattacked. There is also logic in that, because you don’t want to sit on a seam field. You can’t immediately dismiss this thought process, but as the check figures and the final score show, if you continue to attack in these conditions and if the bowlers don’t make any length errors at all, you leave a lot to luck. .

Traditional wisdom suggests that you try to get through the period of extravagant seam moves and hope that you still have one or two specialist hitters left when the seam softens and the sun shines. Here India did not trust the traditional wisdom, either because things were so different from what they expected that they were too shocked to react, or because they consciously decided not to. Those who did – Kohli and Rahul – were unlucky enough to get out before they could get in.

You can still end up with 46 or 36, but you can look back and say you tried to give yourself a chance and then move on and hope for better luck another day. India did just that in Australia, after 36 all out. You suspect that this day will not be so easy to erase from memory.