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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
