Fittingly, James Anderson brought the curtain down on England's 10th win out of 11 under Ben Stokes' captaincy to come full circle in New Zealand.
Incredibly England had not won a Test match in the land of the long white cloud for 15 years before this whopping 267-run victory built on the shoulders of their two long standing bowling kings. While Stuart Broad opened the door on the evening of day three, it was Anderson who closed it on the Kiwis within a session on day four with a quartet of wickets to complete the victory.
Anderson’s 4-18 surpassed Broad’s second innings 4-49, but with 12 wickets between them in the match as they became the most successful bowling partnership in Test history with 1009 scalps, there is no question just how influential the pair remain since playing their part in that last win back in 2008.
This time Anderson slid the ball past Blair Tickner’s outside edge to flick his off stump and finish off the Kiwis for just 126 in their second innings, after Jack Leach had started the day by chipping in with the wicket of Michael Bracewell for 25.
Anderson then accounted for Scott Kuggelijn and skipper Tim Southee in successive balls in the fourth over of the afternoon, but had to work a little harder to remove Neil Wagner and then Tickner across 17 overs of resistance that only paused the inevitable.
Kiwi all rounder Daryl Mitchell once again playing the lone hand with 57 not out. And unsurprisingly the ease with which the bowlers did their job had skipper Stokes purring about his ‘blessed’ bowling lineup who continue to take 20 wickets in all conditions and are just as attacking as his batters.
“I am pretty blessed to be in charge of this bowling group at the moment,” said Stokes. “The idea is to take 10 wickets and that is what we are trying to do - taking the scoreboard away in any situation. As long as we are taking 10 wickets, it doesn't really matter how many runs we go for. We have an ethos with the bat but also with the ball.
"It was another great performance - very clinical with the bat and very clinical with the ball. When you look at the bowling attack we have got with the pink ball under the lights, we executed everything we wanted. To have Jimmy and Broady in your bowling attack, it is always going to be tough for the opposition.
"It was entertaining cricket. Even though we came away with the result, entertaining is what we want to do. Some days it is not going to work but thankfully everything we tried to do paid off.”
And it was a lightbulb moment for this England team too, ending a run of five defeats in day/night cricket. Hobart last winter was a particularly dark moment under lights with a 4-0 Ashes defeat completed with a whimper to add to defeats in New Zealand and India against the pink ball.
But by using the conditions to their advantage at every turn with a bold declaration, Stokes proved that there are no balls, no conditions, and no situation in which his team can’t win. With Harry Brook leading the way once more with the bat to claim the player-of-the-match gong for his scores of 89 and 54, the future continues to look very bright for England even without floodlights.
Stokes added: "Brooky's just carried on from his amazing series in Pakistan," Stokes added, "He's a fantastic talent and I think he's going to go on to be a global superstar."
The team now move on to the final match of the tour in Wellington on Friday 1-0 up and hoping to capture yet another series win for the Stokes and Brendon McCullum era.
