The men were trying to spell the words "No War" in two-metre high letters on the bowlers' run-up at the Basin Reserve in the capital Wellington.
Groundsman Trevor Jackson said that the petrol protest in the early hours of Friday morning was clearly designed for television cameras.
"It's not going to hold up play...we are hopefully going
to get some signwriters in later on this morning with some green paint," Jackson told Radio New Zealand.
New Zealand were 53 for one in reply to India's 161 all out at the close of play on the first day of the first Test on Thursday.
In 1975, vandals protesting the innocence of Englishman George Davis, convicted of armed robbery, ruined the third Ashes Test at Headingley by pouring oil on the pitch.
The umpires were forced to scrap the finely-poised match between England and Australia on the last day.
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