Colombo, Sep 11 (Inditop.com) India’s Ashish Nehra and Yuvraj Singh bowled inspiring spells to pack off New Zealand for 155 runs in their opening One-day International match of the Compaq Cup tri-series cricket here Friday.
New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori elected to bat but the batsmen kept losing wickets and the Kiwis were bowled out in 46.3 overs.
Nehra (3-24) did the damage upfront, before Yuvraj (3-31) bowled a tight spell. Rudra Pratap Singh (2-22) and Ishant Sharma (2-26) chipped in with two wickets each.
New Zealand batsmen never looked comfortable and were reduced to 66 for five at one stage.
Nehra struck with the second ball of the innings trapping Jesse Ryder leg before. The lanky fast bowler, who made a comeback to the team this year with some impressive performance under his belt, struck another blow, removing Brendon McCullum.
R.P. Singh had Ross Taylor caught behind and New Zealand were soon three wickets down with only 19 runs on the board.
Martin Guptill (22) and Grant Elliott (22) tried to stem the rot adding 22 runs, before Yuvraj claimed Guptill with Dravid taking a low catch.
Vettori (25), Jacob Oram and Neil Broom (24) showed some resistance, but could not forge a big partnership.