It was a walk in the park - a walk in beautiful Hagley Park in gorgeous spring sunshine - as England, with a depleted squad, defeated New Zealand in the first of five T20 internationals with seven wickets and nine balls to spare, both big margins in this format.

Yet it was one of those games when the occasion was more important than the match itself. It was, for a start, the first meeting between England and New Zealand since the World Cup final, which ended in a tie, and the Super Over, which also ended in a tie.

But the amount of acrimony, or jealousy, was nil. No international sides get on better than England and New Zealand, and this has not changed since that July evening at Lord’s when Jos Buttler transferred the throw-in from his right glove to left and, with a metre to spare, broke the stumps and heart of the diving Martin Guptill. Beside the pavilion, before the start, Guptill and Jonny Bairstow - one of only three England players in the final who was in this XI - were catching up, as friendly as could be.

More importantly, this game was the first international match in Christchurch since the city added a man-made disaster to the natural disaster of its earthquakes a decade ago. Earlier this year a gunman ran amok in the mosque a few minutes’ walk from this ground and killed 51 people. That number would have been still higher had the Bangladesh team bus left for prayers 10 minutes earlier.

A minute’s silence preceded this game, with children related to the victims standing in front of the players of both countries. “We are all beautifully the same, wonderfully different” was the message.