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McCullum Sets Up New Zealand Win

by John Pennington Sunday 11 January 2015

Brendon McCullum hit a quickfire half-century to get New Zealand off to a winning start

©REUTERS / Action Images

New Zealand 219-7 (Anderson 81) beat
Sri Lanka 218-9 (Jayawardene 104) by 3 wickets
First One-Day International, Christchurch
Scorecard

Brendon McCullum smashed 51 in 22 balls and Corey Anderson added 81 as New Zealand beat Sri Lanka by three wickets in the first One-Day International in Christchurch.

Mahela Jayawardene made 104 in 107 balls as he played a lone hand for the tourists as they posted a score of 218 for nine.

Mitchell McClenaghan took four for 36 for New Zealand, who were excellent in the field.

McCullum then hammered six fours and three sixes to get the home side's run chase off to a flyer before Sri Lanka hit back to reduce them to 101 for five.

Anderson's half-century took New Zealand close to victory and after his dismissal, Nathan McCullum's 25 not out guided the Black Caps to victory.

Nuwan Kulasekara, Sachithra Senanayake and Tillakaratne Dilshan all took two wickets for Sri Lanka.

Jayawardene's 18th ODI century rescued Sri Lanka as they slipped to 82 for four with New Zealand making inroads with the two new balls.

He struck 12 fours and one six before falling in the 47th over with the score on 200 to McClenaghan, who two balls earlier had also removed Jeevan Mendis (23).

Lahiru Thirimanne, who also made 23, was the only other player to score more than 19.

Adam Milne (2-37), Anderson (1-61) and Nathan McCullum (1-38) offered excellent support to McClenaghan.

Although Martin Guptill fell for a three-ball duck, McCullum did not hold back and when he was dismissed in the seventh over, he had made 51 and the score was 63 for two.

From there, Kane Williamson (15), Tom Latham (15) and Grant Elliott (1) also fell before Anderson and Luke Ronchi added 48 for the sixth wicket until Ronchi was caught by Angelo Mathews off Shaminda Eranga (1-49) for 17.

Nathan McCullum then added 60 with Anderson, who struck 11 fours and a six, to guide the Black Caps to within 10 runs of victory.

Milne was unbeaten on seven as the winning runs came after 43 overs.