Hamish Marshall and Nathan Astle both made centuries while Brendon McCullum fell agonisingly short as New Zealand took control of the opening Test with Sri Lanka in Napier on Tuesday.
Pounded by the Australians last month, the home batsmen rediscovered their form against a Sri Lankan bowling attack desperately missing the injured Muttiah Muralitharan, piling on 561, their sixth highest total in Test cricket.
Sri Lanka wiped 48 runs off the deficit without loss by stumps on the second day to trail by 513 at McLean Park. Captain Marvan Atapattu was on 14 with Sanath Jayasuriya on 31 when bad light stopped play early.
New Zealand's marathon first innings finally ended after tea. Marshall top-scored with a career-best 160 while Nathan Astle made 114, his 10th Test hundred, after the Kiwis resumed on 267 for three.
McCullum seemed certain to become the third batsman to reach three figures when he raced to within one run of the mark in a little over three hours only to be deceived by the unorthodox Malinga.
The Sri Lankan, who bowls with an unusual round-arm action, trapped McCullum leg before wicket with a cleverly disguised slower ball, making him the eighth New Zealand batsman to be dismissed for 99 in a Test.
Marshall resumed on 133 and quickly passed his previous high score of 146, set against Australia last month, but fell to Malinga with the total on 312 when he spooned a catch to Chaminda Vaas at mid-on.
Marshall, who had shared century stands with his identical twin James as well as Astle, batted 326 minutes, faced 250 balls and hit 22 fours and two sixes to lift his career average to 67.25 from six Tests.
New Zealand lost a second wicket before lunch when Lou Vincent departed for a duck, caught by Tillakaratne Dilshan at second slip and providing Sri Lankan medium pacer Nuwan Kulasekara with a first Test wicket on his debut.
Astle and McCullum steadied the innings with a partnership of 129, with Astle striking 17 fours before falling to Vaas.
Malinga removed McCullum, then bowled Kyle Mills for four in his next over to finish with four wickets before tailender James Franklin smashed his maiden Test half-century to lift the total past 550.
Scoreboard:
New Zealand 1st innings (Overnight: 267-3)
C Cumming lbw b Vaas 12
J Marshall c Samaraweera b Chandana 52
H Marshall c Vaas b Malinga 160
S Fleming b Malinga 16
N Astle c Jayasuriya b Vaas 114
L Vincent c Dilshan b Kulasekara 0
B McCullum lbw b Malinga 99
J Franklin c Malinga b Herath 55
K Mills b Malinga 4
P Wiseman c Atapattu b Herath 27
C Martin not out 1
Extras (b-5 lb-4 nb-10 w-2) 21
Total (all out, 159.1 overs) 561
Fall of wickets: 1-35 2-142 3-187 4-312 5-317 6-446 7-487 8-497 9-540 10-561
Bowling: Vaas 33-5-125-2 (nb-7 w-1), Malinga 35-5-131-4 (nb-2 w-1), Kulasekara 24-7-69-1, Herath 30.1-5-91-2, Chandana 33-4-123-1 (nb-1), Jayasuriya 3-1-8-0, Dilshan 1-0-5-0.
Sri Lanka 1st innings
M Atapattu not out 14
S Jayasuriya not out 31
Extras (lb-2 nb-1) 3
Total (for no loss, 12 overs) 48
To bat: M Jayawardene, K Sangakkara, T Dilshan, T Samaraweera, N Kulasekara, U Chandana, C Vaas, R Herath, L Malinga
Bowling: Martin 5-1-14-0 (nb-1), Franklin 4-0-18-0, Wiseman 2-1-4-0, Mills 1-0-10-0.
