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Henry shines as Kiwis hammer Sri Lanka by seven wickets
His momentum was briefly arrested by some well-placed Kulasekera yorkers and it took another five balls for Guptill to reach his half-century, one behind the world record – 16 balls – held by AB de Villiers.
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Matt Henry, man of the match in the first one-dayer, took four wickets for an even better 33 including both opening batsman.
The two teams now relocate to Nelson for the next two of the series’ five one-day matches at Saxton Oval in Nelson, on New Year’s Eve and 2 January, followed by the final game at Mount Maunganui on 5 January.
Fellow opener Tillakaratne Dilshan (nine) followed suit soon after when he top-edged a pull to Nicholls at mid-wicket to become Henry’s first victim.
McCullum left the field midway through Sri Lanka’s innings at Hagley Oval in Christchurch and with regular vice-captain Kane Williamson nursing a sore knee, turned the captaincy over to Ross Taylor.
“It’s just a little bit niggly so we want to make sure it’s a hundred per cent”, New Zealand batting coach Craig McMillan told Fairfax Media while adding that test batsman Tom Latham was on standby for the squad.
In reply, Martin Guptill (79) and captain Brendon McCullum (55) started on a blistering note as the opening 108-run stand quashed any chances of a comeback by the tourists.
The caught behind shout was rejected by umpire Phillip Jones but wicketkeeper Luke Ronchi was confident and New Zealand’s appeal revealed the faintest of touches.
Black Caps bowler Henry showed great commitment to stop Sri Lanka from scoring a boundary and moments later got rid of Dilshan.
Trent Boult (R) and Brendon McCullum (2nd L) of New Zealand celebrate after taking the wicket of Kithuruwan Vithanage of Sri Lanka during day one of the International Test cricket against Sri Lanka at Seddon Park in Hamilton on December 18, 2015.
Milinda Siriwardana and Nuwan Kulasekara spared some of the visitors’ blushes with a half century each, but it wasn’t enough to avoid a mammoth defeat, with the Black Caps winning by seven wickets and 174 balls still to spare.
As Guptill flayed the Sri Lanka attack, a match which had already been lop-sided lurched towards farce.
New Zealand batsman Martin Guptill has gone ballistic with the willow, smashing 93 from 30 balls and almost breaking the world record for the fastest one-day worldwide fifty.
“We could not deal with it and we misplaced too many wickets up entrance and we didn’t give our bowlers an opportunity to bowl at them”.
“We’ve got a bumper calendar really with Sri Lanka here at the moment, Pakistan to come and finishing off with the Aussies”, he said.
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Earlier groans greeted Angelo Mathews’ decision to bat once he won the toss and the crowd’s dismay was justified as Sri Lanka eked out 117 in less than 28 overs on a pitch that was obviously conducive to strokeplay.