Electing to bat, New Zealand made a disastrous start, losing opener Martin Guptill in the second ball of the first over.

Trying to cut an away going delivery from Malinga, Guptill's leading edge landed in Chamara Kapugedera's safe hands at backward point.

Lasith Malinga and Angelo Mathews shared six wickets between them as Sri Lanka bundled out a hapless New Zealand for 192 in 48.1 overs.

Photographs: Reuters

Mathews then struck twice in the 11th over to cripple the visitors.

First, he trapped captain Ross Taylor (16) in front of wicket off the first ball and then dismissed Kane Williamson (0) with the third ball, caught at first slip by Thilan Samaraweera.

Opener B J Watling top-scored with a 68-ball 55 on debut, but New Zealand kept losing wickets from the other end.

Left-arm spinner Rangana Herath removed Scott Styris (24) caught at first slip by Mahela Jayawardene, while in the next over Watling was also sent packing by Mathews as New Zealand slipped to 101 for five in the 24th over.

Malinga took the wickets of Gareth Hopkins (11) and Daryl Tuffey (0) in consecutive deliveries.

Kyle Mills (11) was the next to go when Herath's flighted delivery got the leading edge of his blade and long-off fielder Mathews took a running catch as the visitors plummeted to 143 for eight in 37 overs.

New Zealand's second highest scorer Nathan McCullum (36) gave some respectability to the innings before perishing in the 45th over.

Sri Lanka tottered to a three-wicket win over New Zealand after a late collapse.

Chasing 193 for victory, the Lankans were propelled by Upul Tharanga (70 off 109) and captain Kumar Sangakkara (48) after the early loss of opener Tilakkaratne Dilshan (5) in the third over.

Tharanga and Sangakkara built the innings well and together raised an 85-run stand to keep the hosts afloat.

But in the 37th over Tharanga fell to Kiwi pacer Kyle Mills and hereafter all hell broke loose.

In the space of 14 deliveries, the hosts were reduced from a comfortable 162 for four to 180 for seven. It looked like the New Zealand were slowly crawling back into the game.

Mills accounted for the wickets of Angelo Mathews and Rangana Herath, while Nuwan Kulasekara was picked by Tim Southee.

But the Lankans overcame this slight hiccup thanks largely to Thilan Samaraweera, who scored a quickfire 36 off 38 deliveries (4x4), before slamming the winning runs with 9.1 overs to spare.

With fugures of 4 for 41 against his name, Kyle Mills was the most impressive bowler for the Kiwis.