Trent Boult's four-wicket haul restricted India to a total of 179 © Getty

It's only a warm-up match but India's inflated batting rank stared back at us yet again during their first practice game. It wasn't long back when they looked inept against the moving ball, albeit in a series win over New Zealand, and their warm-up match against the same opposition on a grassy batting pitch at The Oval was anything but a different story.

Opting to bat first, most definitely to test themselves - "you want to put yourself in tough situations in warm-up games," Virat Kohli said at the toss - India lost Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan and KL Rahul to Trent Boult less than six overs into the match. Boult found swing and seam in helpful conditions, laying bare India's consistent lack of a contingency plan after losing early wickets, and left them tottering at 91 for 7 before Ravindra Jadeja's 50-ball 54 helped them to 179 in 39.2 overs. If not for the ninth wicket stand of 62 runs between Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav, India looked set to be bundled up for a far lesser total.

Jadeja came to the crease in the 20th over, when India were 81 for 6 after Neesham's double-wicket over, and thrived on the shorter lengths the quicks bowled to him. He looked even better against spin. After two quiet overs from Mitchell Santner, Jadeja laid into the left-arm spinner with a 4, 4 and 6 off consecutive deliveries. He hit another six off Ish Sodhi, making for the only two sixes India hit in the innings.

Kohli looked the best among India's top-order batsmen in negotiating the moving ball. He batted outside his crease, played late and countered Boult's left-arm angle to perfection, only to be bowled through the gate in Colin de Grandhomme's first over. MS Dhoni was his animated self at the crease, shuffling across and leaving deliveries outside off-stump, and his 38-run partnership with Hardik Pandya for the fifth wicket, though short-lived, helped India arrest the slide.

Hardik Pandya, sent in at No. 5 ahead of Dhoni and Dinesh Karthik, looked good during his 37-ball 30, which included a few cover drives that rivalled Kohli's earlier in the game, but he couldn't quite be the batsman that Jadeja proved to be with his half-century in trying conditions.

Brief scores: India 179 in 39.2 overs (Ravindra Jadeja 54, Hardik Pandya 30; Trent Boult 4-33, James Neesham 3-26) vs New Zealand.