New Zealand got their ICC Cricket World Cup campaign off to a winning start when they outplayed Sri Lanka by 98 runs in the tournament opener on Saturday at Hagley Oval in Christchurch.
The co-hosts, New Zealand batted, bowled and fielded superbly to register their first win over Sri Lanka in a World Cup match after 23 long years. Brendon McCullum and Corey Anderson struck blitzkrieg half-tons to lead the Black Caps to 331 after being sent into bat by Sri Lanka. The Lankan Lions failed in their mammoth chase as left-armers, Trent Boult and Daniel Vettori combined well to do the initial damage with the ball. Lahiru Thirimanne top-scored with 65 for the losing team.
Skipper Brendon McCullum and Martin Guptill provided the best possible opening for the most-anticipated tournament of this decade by hammering down the Lankan seam bowlers led by Lasith Malinga. McCullum raced to his half-ton in just 35 deliveries. New Zealand raced to 77 in the mandatory Power play and the two right-handers laid the foundation superbly with a 95-ball stand worth 111 runs for the first wicket before McCullum was sharply taken by Jeewan Mendis at deep long-off Rangana Herath for 65. Sri Lanka had the opportunity to remove in-form Kane Williamson on his first delivery but a diving Sangakkara dropped the catch.
Next time around, Sangakkara was successfully taking a smart one-hand catch to dismiss Guptill for 49 off the impressive Lakmal. The Lankan bowlers stemmed down the run-flow with Ross Taylor and Williamson struggling to find form but the latter finally got his act together to make the 13th ODI half-ton in his last 17 games. Leg-spinner Jeewan Mendis got Sri Lanka back into contention with two wickets in two balls to dismiss both Taylor and Williamson as the hosts were restricted to 193/4 with only 16 overs remaining.
Corey Anderson came in and completely took the Lankan bowlers to the cleaners with quick-fire 46-ball 75 as the hosts stroked 102 runs in the final 10 overs. For the Lankan bowlers, Malinga was good with his Yorkers but looked very rusty in line and length on his return game after his surgery while Lakmal bowled impressively early on. Kulasekara was disappointing once again leaking 78 runs in 8 overs.
Sri Lanka started off positively in their chase of 332 runs with Lahiru Thirimanne showcasing his aggressive mode of batting with true batting strokes yet his partner TM Dilshan never found good rhythm during his knock of 24. A promising 67-runs opening stand was ended by Daniel Vettori’s teasing left-arm spin as Dilshan gave an easy return catch to the veteran.
Thirimanne was joined by Sangakkara and both left-handers timed the ball perfectly off the bat to construct a well-calculated partnership. Sangakkara stroke passed Ricky Ponting to reach the 2nd place in the all-time leading run-scorers list in ODIs. Left-arm seamer Trent Boult came in for his 2nd spell and completely shattered the Lankan plans with two in-swinging Yorkers to dismiss well-set Thirimanne for 65 and Sangakkara for 39 in successive overs. Meanwhile, Daniel Vettori got the better of Mahela Jayawardene once again as Sri Lanka fell into a deep hole at 129 for 4 after being 124 for 1 at one stage.
Skipper Angelo Mathews tried his level best to build up an unlikely miracle on a losing effort with his under-firing lower middle order but Adam Milne took out both Dimuth Karunarathne and Jeewan Mendis with his extra pace in space of 3 balls. Mathews showed his fighting spirit but eventually fell for 46 as the Lankan tail was cleaned up by the Kiwis for only 233.
Sri Lanka will be desperate to put up a disciplined effort in the field and the bowlers have loads of homework and practice to do before the next game against the minnows, Afghanistan on 22nd of February in Dunedin.
Chief Scores:
New Zealand – 331/6 in 50 overs: Brendon McCullum 65, Kane Williamson 57, Corey Anderson 75,Suranga Lakmal 2/62, Jeewan Mendis 2/5.
Sri Lanka – 233 all out in 46.1 overs: Lahiru Thirimanne 65, Angelo Mathews 46, Daniel Vettori 2/34, Trent Boult 2/64, Adam Milne 2/56, Tim Southee 2/43.
