England look pretty bad in pink

cricket in the middle will all contribute to what might be called a ‘good result’.”

What he didn’t say, but might have had the question been posed to him two hours later was: “Well, we need to get to the weekend at least.”

All talk of New Zealand Cricket’s brave new world, however, seemed a little irrelevant when it was two old stagers wreaking havoc.

Trent Boult and Tim Southee have seen some heady days at this park but as they chewed the fat over croissants and coffee yesterday morning, it was unlikely either of them scripted this sort of fantasy. There was no room for any other bowler as they mopped up the 10 English wickets between them — six to Boult, four to Southee — aided by spectacular catching.

How much of this damage was due to their experience and skill? How much was it down to a wicket that provided just enough assistance to be menacing? How much was it down to the pink ball?

This last point is genuine. Noncricket people might be surprised just how much conjecture the performance of a 160g pastelcoloured projectile has created.

The lights finally came into play at 7pm. By that stage New Zealand’s captain Kane Williamson and Tom Latham had calmly guided New Zealand through to a position of relative strength at 88 for 1.

By stumps, the Black Caps had reached 175 for 3, a lead of 117 runs with 7 wickets in hand. Williamson was there on 91, in sight of his 18th century.

At mid-evening, the hospitality boxes were buzzing, and the ground, while a long way from full, was positively heaving in comparison to tests of the recent past here.

We’ll get a better idea of the success of installations like the barber’s chair and the night market

Htonight and tomorrow, when numbers are expected to swell. In marketing terms, yesterday’s was a soft launch, but there wouldn’t be any great anxiety over this. Test cricket has been a hard sell in New Zealand for years, midweek test cricket near impossible.

As evening fell and the players took their dinner break, the crowd gravitated to the outer oval. It provided something the cavernous main stadium has never been able to do for cricket outside of those magical World Cup nights — a sense of community. If this test meanders through to tomorrow night at least, New Zealand Cricket, the organisation, will have won. Chances are, given the performance of Boult and Southee yesterday, New Zealand, the team, will have too. For video of Williamson's catch see nzherald.co.nz

90 minutes of mayhem B1