New Zealand plundered 77 in their first 10 overs and 102 in their last 10 as they opened their World Cup campaign with a powerful batting performance at the Hagley Oval. It left Sri Lanka chasing 332, but they may have had to crane their necks at an even more imposing target had their bowlers not managed to exert some sort of control during the middle 30 overs, during which they picked up four wickets and conceded only 5.07 runs per over.
But the damage done by Brendon McCullum at the start of the innings and by Corey Anderson at the end left the biggest impact upon the scorecard. Lasith Malinga, returning to ODI cricket for the first time since undergoing ankle surgery in September, showed the effects of his layoff in spraying the ball around and conceding 84 from his 10 overs, and his new-ball and death-overs partner Nuwan Kulasekara took even more punishment, leaking 78 in eight. Sri Lanka's fielding did them no favours either. Four catches went down, all at junctures when a wicket could have swayed the momentum of the innings.
McCullum looked in terrifying touch right from the start, flat-batting both opening bowlers for fours through the covers in the first couple of overs. Martin Guptill, who faced most of the bowling initially, picked up successive fours off Kulasekara in the fifth over, when he strayed onto his pads and overcompensated with width outside off. Malinga troubled both openers with his slower ball, which dipped confusingly late in its flight path and on one occasion prompted an lbw appeal when it hit McCullum's pad on the full.
Malinga's radar, though, was all over the place, and McCullum dispatched two full-tosses to the leg-side boundary in the eighth over. In between, Malinga sent down a no-ball on the pads, which McCullum clipped for another four, and a slower-ball free-hit right in the slot for McCullum to clear his front leg and launch for a straight six. Twenty three runs came off that over, and McCullum had scored 22 of them - only Virat Kohli, during his blazing century in Hobart three years ago, had scored more in an over against Malinga.
Sri Lanka turned to Rangana Herath in the 10th over, and he immediately brought some measure of normalcy to proceedings before getting McCullum to hole out by daring to go after a ball that wasn't quite full enough to hit over the top with full control. It gripped, turned, and McCullum didn't quite middle it; long-off still took it right on the edge, while threatening to topple over the rope.
Suranga Lakmal came on as Sri Lanka's fourth-change bowler, but immediately looked the most impressive of their seamers, producing outswing from a fullish length to get Kane Williamson edging his first ball, only for the ball to bounce off the diving Kumar Sangakkara's right mitt. In near-identical circumstances six overs later, Sangakkara managed to pouch Guptill.
Williamson wasn't batting with his usual fluency - early in his innings, he French-cut Lakmal for four and nearly popped a return catch to Herath - but Sri Lanka wouldn't let him leave the crease. When he was on 27, Angelo Mathews leaped at short cover and got a hand to a powerful slap off Kulasekara but couldn't quite hold on.
Williamson had doubled his score when he holed out to the legspinner Jeevan Mendis in the 34th over. Mendis held his next delivery back a touch, and released from a foot behind the crease. Ross Taylor, lunging out of his crease to flick against the turn, was beaten by dip and turn, and Sangakkara stumped him after a bit of a juggle. At the end of that over, Mendis had figures of 2 for 5 from two overs. For some reason, he didn't bowl another ball.
Anderson and Grant Elliott, the two new batsmen, took 33 from the batting Powerplay, which left New Zealand 229 for 4 at the 40-over mark. Elliott heaved Lakmal straight to deep midwicket in the 44th over, and Anderson skied the same bowler high over cover in the 46th over to give Sri Lanka a chance of restricting the score to under 300, but Mendis settled under the ball at cover and dropped the sitter.
Anderson was on 43 at that point. New Zealand were on 278. Anderson and Ronchi plundered 50 runs from the 27 balls that remained. Sri Lanka still had enough time for one more act of tragicomedy, Malinga overstepping while bowling Ronchi with a perfect yorker.
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