Sideline Sid Sports correspondent & historian www.sunlive.co.nz

England One - New Zealand Black Caps minus 267 runs. The final tally from the historic day/night test match played at the Bay Oval, over the weekend, produced a very one sided result in favour of the visitors.

Much had been written and discussed about the new-look England test side and the New Zealand influence in the brains trust, entering the pink ball test match.

Black Caps super-hero Brendan McCullum, had jumped the fence to coach England, with New Zealand born England skipper Ben Stokes in charge on the field.

The Kiwi connection had provided a new steel to the test squad which had taken England to nine wins from ten tests under the new regime.

The big question entering the scheduled five day day/nighter at the Bay Oval was; were England the real deal or were they just pretenders.

New Zealand's first mistake came quickly after winning the toss - when they asked England to bat.

From the start of the first session, England grabbed the ascendancy at a run rate more accustomed to the T20 game. The non-stop attack on the Black Caps bowlers, saw England unbelievably declare on the opening day, at 325 for the loss of 9 wickets.

England put in immediate pressure on the Black Caps top order, to capture the key wickets of Tom Latham, Kane Williamson and Henry Nicholls. New Zealand ended the opening days play in some trouble at 37/3.

Black Cap night watchman Neil Wagner, kicked-off the fightback on day two with a quickfire bonus of twenty-three runs, when he was dismissed for 27 runs.

Devon Conway (77) and keeper Tom Blundell dug in and got the hosts back in the game. When Blundell was the last man out with a magnificent 138 of 181 balls; New Zealand were back in the match, albeit some 19 runs behind.

Stumps at the end of the second day, showed England at 79 for the cost of two wickets, and Black Cap fans believing their team was in with a chance (of victory).

England then simply blasted the home side out of the match, going on to score 374 runs in their second turn at bat, and set New Zealand a massive 393 target to win.

Again the pink ball under lights proved the Black Caps undoing, with the hosts reeling at 63/5 at stumps on day three.

England needed just a session on day four, to complete the rout, with New Zealand bowled out for 126 to give England a 267 run victory.

While New Zealand cricket fans were left to cry into their drinks, we got to see an emerging super-star unveiled at the Bay Oval.

Harry (HR) Brook who was adjudged Man of the Match, with innings of 89 and 54, looks to be the real deal.

Just 23 years of age, Brook showed maturity beyond his years in his two knocks at the Bay Oval. Just five tests, and eight innings, have produced 623 runs at an exhilarating average of 77.87.

After the razzmatazz associated with the inaugural Bay Oval day/night test has settled, it becomes a good time to look at the positives and negatives to emerge.

Positives, include the crowd who numbered in the mid twenty-thousand over the four days of play, the thousands of English supporters and their musical accompaniments, the ambience of the occasion and the friendliness of the venue management team.

Negatives – This writer, who was at the first two days of the test action, can't think of one.