UPDATE: LEGEND Shane Warne gave day-night Test matches “a tick and smiley face” as pink ball fever lit up cricket at Adelaide Oval on Friday night.

Adelaide Oval’s crack curator Damian Hough concedes there were plenty of ‘sleepless’ nights in daring to be different and deliver cricket’s blueprint pitch.

It took a perfectionist in Hough to produce a pitch out of the box and against the grain of benign surfaces around the globe that conspire against enthralling cricket.

Incredibly, Hough devised the pitch a decaying format needed. There was something for everyone straddling the hardest degree of difficulty – using an immature, three-year old drop-in tray.

New Zealand folded for 202 after dinner while Australia was 2/54 in reply at stumps on the opening night with the ball swinging under lights as expected. Australian skipper Steve Smith (24) and Adam Voges (9) showed the benefits of mental application and resume 148 runs behind the visitors today.

“It was good bowling from Australia, a couple of bad shots and nothing to do with the pink ball,” said Warne.

Quality Black Caps left-armer Trent Boult (1/15) and Doug Bracewell (1/6) are a handful at the slightest hint of green and so it proved claiming David Warner (1) and Joe Burns (14).

Day one was captivating with 12 wickets falling but short of the 18 on day one of the third Test between New Zealand and Australia in 1974 at Auckland with the red ball.

All the talk about pink balls and day-night Test history in front of a bumper first day crowd of 47,441 in Adelaide had overshadowed the simple mechanics that had proven successful over 138 years.

Hough’s pitch provided encouragement for pace, spin and prudent batting as promised but it was up to players to perform. A director is only as good as his talent.

“There’s just enough in this pitch if you get it in the right spot,” noted former Australian skipper Mark Taylor.

Mitchell Starc, bowling with stress fractures that will sideline him here, continued his first class prowess with the pink ball he dislikes.

Black Caps No.3 Kane Williamson (22) lasted 10 balls against Starc when switched to the river end, eventually finding an in-swing rocket impossible to defend. Skipper Brendon McCullum followed quickly (4) with a silly swipe.

Hough’s strip for the day night Sheffield Shield clash last month between South Australia and New South Wales had provided the template for this Test and been given the thumbs up in a private review with Smith. Still, Hough ‘worried at night’ but triumphed in his mission to make people forget the pink ball and focus on the match.

It can be revealed Hough left exactly 11mm of top layer, coarse, matte grass on his pitch in a bid to prepare the ideal surface ball but didn’t influence the contest. Some curators leave 6mm and others across the subcontinent none.

The bounce and carry has improved out of sight in Adelaide while the coarse grass provided turn from the outset. Off-spinner Nathan Lyon was introduced in the 11thover then removed set opener Tom Latham for 50. Mark Craig (11) was mesmerised by a corker turner from Australia’s leading off-spinner.

Peter Siddle reached 200 Test wickets exploiting subtle seam movement to claim Bracewell (11) and Ross Taylor (21) .

“There’s a good 10 millimetre of grass out there and we haven’t seen enough of that in recent times,” said Taylor, as a sequence of six consecutive first innings Test totals exceeding 500 in Australia came to an end.

There’s a fine line between a green top and ‘nibble; but Hough has managed a top layer of consistent grass that he says can be rolled but then “pop back” to life for the duration of a match.

It’s the formula groundsmen around the world will be on the phone for.