Cardiff: All-round New Zealand beat Sri Lanka by 10 wickets in their ICC Cricket Worl Cup tournament opener at Sophia Gardens, here on Friday.
Chasing a paltry total of 136 runs to register their first win in the ongoing tournament New Zealand openers Martin Guptill (73*) and Collin Munro (58*) guided their side to victory in just 16.1 overs with ten wickets in hand.
While Guptill's 73 runs knock was laced with eight boundaries and two sixes, Munro scored 58 runs off 47 balls with the help of four fours and one maximum.
Earlier, the grass on the pitch and some quality bowlers in the team in form Trent Boult, Matt Henry saw New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson winning the toss and bowling first and the result was Sri Lanka folding up for just 136 in just 29.2 overs.
Newly appointed Sri Lankan skipper Dimuth Karunaratne scored fifty as his side huffed and puffed his way to 135.
Matt Henry was the standout performer with the ball for New Zealand as the 27-year-old ripped apart Sri Lanka's bowling. Henry picked three wickets giving away just 29 runs.
Asked to bat first at the tricky surface, Sri Lanka never get going as they lost opener Lahiru Thirimanne in the very first over of the match.
Kusal Perera along with his skipper Dimuth Karunaratne rebuild Sri Lanka's innings, however, just when the duo started doing some damage control, the 28-year-old Islander became the second victim of Henry.
Perera's 29 run knock was laced with four boundaries. Following Perera's departure, Sri Lanka's batting collapse as Kusal Mendis, Dhananjaya de Silva, Angelo Mathews and Jeevan Mendis shared just five runs among them before they were sent back to the pavilion.
Batting at number eight Thisara Perera played some good shot and counterattack New Zealand' pace attack as he snitched 62-run stand with Karunaratne.
Mitchell Santner removed Perera from the attack when he was batting at 27 and after that, it was just a matter of time before Sri Lanka were bowled out. Perera scored 27 runs off 23 balls with the help of two sixes.
For New Zealand, Lockie Ferguson picked three wickets. Colin de Grandhomme, Trent Boult and Mitchell Santner picked one wicket each.
Brief Scores: New Zealand: 137/0 (Martin Guptill 73*, Collin Munro 58* ) beat Sri Lanka: 136 all out (Dimuth Karunaratne 51; Matt Henry 3/29, Lockie Ferguson 3/22) by 10 wickets.
