Kane Williamson's heart might have jumped into his mouth when he nicked Mohammed Shami in the 29th over; his eyes instinctively followed the trail of the ball, almost compelled to watch his own demise. But a split second later, they were dazzling with renewed hope: he had been afforded another shot to become the day's hero.
Murali Vijay moved to his left at first slip, but a little too sharply to make the simple catch; as it popped out of his hard hands, Shami screamed in pain and anger, realising that India may well have squandered the match.
Expectedly, Williamson tightened his girdle and went on to play an array of delightful strokes; and in his own inimitable way, almost imperceptibly, scaled his fifth Test century (113: 172b, 10x4, 2x6).
He wasn't alone in rubbing salt and pepper into India's bruised ego though: Brendon McCullum was equally speckless, if a tad more exciting, during his unconquered 143 (210b, 18x4, 2x6). Together, they rescued New Zealand from the vice-like grip of Hine-nui-te-po, the God of death in Maori mythology, adding 221 quick fire runs; and by close of play on Day 1 of the first Test, they had sped to a dominant 329 for 4, leaving India gasping for breath and respite.
Earlier in the morning, McCullum could only wave apologetically to his mates, after losing the toss to MS Dhoni for the sixth time in succession; the Indian batsmen would have been more than happy to dance a full Monty, after seeing the dark clouds perched ominously over the Eden Park.
The bowlers too would have been thrilled, but obviously for other reasons: they could go for the kill. Interestingly, Shami led the charge with the new ball, with Zaheer Khan settling for the secondary role.
Both swung and swerved the ball in favourable conditions; but it was only after Ishant Sharma's entry, at first change, that danger loomed.
Off his fifth delivery itself, he extracted a blinder from Ajinkya Rahane at gully to send Hamish Rutherford to his woes; Zaheer, then, switched ends and promptly caught Peter Fulton napping in front of the stumps.
A few overs later, danger man Ross Taylor ended up hitting an expansive drive into Jadeja's eager hands; New Zealand were suddenly 30 for three, with no appetite for the impending lunch.
But almost miraculously, after the break, the clouds cleared up; the sun began to shine, almost vengefully, and the pitch slowly eased out too.
Williamson was already showing signs of getting into his groove, rising on his toes and punching the pacers through covers; emboldened by the reprieve, he tore into the bowling, though like a gentleman. He wasn't scared of pulling, though, or cutting anything remotely short on the off-stump. He reached his 50 with a six, just to beat McCullum to the landmark; his captain was a lot more aggressive, pulling and using his muscle-power to crack the boundaries.
As they went head to head, India's bowling wilted towards the horrific: the pacers started bowling short and provided enough width to give easy runs. They didn't seem to have a Plan B and the scoreboard galloped away happily; Jadeja was unable to stem the flow of runs either, being swept or driven back by either batsman.
McCullum eventually won the race to the century, opting for the aerial route to jump from 94 to 100 as Williamson refused to get waylaid. He became somewhat cautious after that, determined not to throw away the initiative. By close of play, as clouds reassembled over the horizon, Corey Anderson helped himself to 42.
India will hope that they get a second chance on Friday morning, with the second new ball.
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