28 December 2004	Tuesday	15 Ziqa'ad 1425

WELLINGTON, Dec 27: Captain Stephen Fleming smashed an unbeaten half-century to steer New Zealand to an easy seven-wicket victory over Sri Lanka in their first One-day International at Eden Park in Auckland on Sunday.

Fleming made 77 not out from 92 balls to help the Kiwis finish on 144 for three and race past Sri Lanka's modest total of 141 with 17 overs to spare. The tourists were skittled out in just 42 overs after all rounder Chris Cairns ripped through the middle order to capture four wickets for 33 runs.

Cairns picked up the vital scalps of former captain Sanath Jayasuriya for 43 and top-scorer Tillakaratne Dilshan for 48 to prevent the Sri Lankans from mounting a fight back.

Sri Lanka lost four wickets inside the first 13 overs as opener Saman Jayantha (0), captain Marvan Atapattu (4), wicket keeper Kumar Sangakkara (1) and Mahela Jayawardene (2) all fell cheaply to the bowling combination of Daryl Tuffey, Kyle Mills and Jacob Oram.

Sunday's match was the first of five limited-overs internationals between New Zealand and Sri Lanka that will determine second place in the world rankings behind Australia.

SCOREBOARD



SRI LANKA



S.Jayantha lbw b Tuffey                 0 



S.Jayasuriya c Marshall b Cairns 	43 



M.Atapattu c McCullum b Tuffey          4 



K.Sangakkara c McCullum b Mills         1 



M.Jayawardene c Sinclair b Oram         2 



T.Dilshan c Fleming b Cairns            48 



U.Chandana run out                      20 



C.Vaas b Cairns                         0 



F.Maharoof c Fleming b Cairns           2 



N.Kulasekara not out                    4 



D.Fernando run out                      3 



Extras (lb-4 w-9 nb-1)                  14 



Total (all out 42 overs)                141



Fall of wkts: 1-1 2-17 3-18 4-35 5-70 6-114 7-116 8-120 9-134 10-141



Bowling: Tuffey 8-1-17-2 (w-3), Mills 8-3-24-1, Oram 7-0-23-1 (w-1), 
Cairns 8-1-33-4 (w-1 nb-1), Vettori 6-0-22-0 (w-1), Styris 5-0-18-0.



NEW ZEALAND 



S.Fleming not out                       77 



N.Astle lbw b Vaas                      6 



M.Sinclair c and b Chandana             31 



S.Styris run out                        12 



H.Marshall not out                      14 



Extras (b-2 lb-1 nb-1)                  4 



Total (for three wkts, 33 overs)        144



Fall of wkts: 1-7 2-64 3-101



Did not bat: J.Oram, C.Cairns, B.McCullum, D.Vettori, K.Mills, D.Tuffey



Bowling: Vaas 8-1-31-1, Kulasekara 8-3-13-0, Maharoof 3-0-31-0, 
Fernando 5-0-22-0 (nb-1), Chandana 7-1-29-1, Jayasuriya 2-0-15-0. -Reuters