After an embarrassing batting performance in the first innings that saw India register their lowest ever Test total in Asia, India breathed a sigh of relief as they got off to a steady start in the second innings of the first Test against New Zealand in Bengaluru.

With about an hour to go until tea break, Rohit Sharma (27*) and Yashasvi Jaiswal (29*) got off to a good start with an unbroken 57-run stand and led India's reply after New Zealand took a mammoth lead of 356 in the first innings.

With the sun shining and the pitch softened, both batters performed well and there weren't many moments of panic during this period of the game. After a few cautious overs, Rohit opened with a few delicious drives and silky flicks to keep the scoreboard ticking. Jaiswal did not look fluid as usual and appeared to be streaky at the crease but gained momentum as the overs progressed. The strike rate of almost four runs per over ensured that India did not falter – a crucial point when the deficit is so large.

Hitting has become relatively easy, but the surface shows signs of uneven bounce, which could increase over the next two days. Spin also seems to play a big role, but so far the surface hasn't behaved too badly.

Rachin Ravindra showed a batting tutorial and his post-lunch attack resulted in valuable runs for New Zealand as the lead crossed the 350-run mark. Tim Southee also managed a fifty but fell just after the milestone, leaving Ravindra in 10th and 11th.

At this point, Ravindra switched completely to T20 mode. It's not like he needed an invitation to take on the weirdos, because he'd done exactly that before. But that gave him full freedom to try and he peppered the field with some powerful shots. India was guilty of not giving Kuldeep Yadav an LBW rating when Ravindra was on 110. He added another 24 more runs to hurt India even more. The southpaw eventually fell victim to the wrist spinner as the last wicket, but not before doing major damage.

Trailing by 299 with seven sessions remaining, India's back is against the wall. The next session of the day has to be really good for the home side if they want to go into matchday four with a great chance of saving the game.

Short results: India 46 and 57/0 (Yashasvi Jaiswal 29*, Rohit Sharma 27*) are 299 runs behind New Zealand 402 (Rachin Ravindra 134, Devon Conway 91; Ravindra Jadeja 3-72).