Summary New Zealand made 331-6 against Sri Lanka in their opening Pool A World Cup match.
SYDNEY (AFP) - New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum and Corey Anderson both made dashing fifties as the World Cup co-hosts launched the tournament with an imposing 331 for six against Sri Lanka in Christchurch on Saturday.
After all the hype for the tournament, an event which officials predict will attract a potential global television audience of 2.5 billion people, rain briefly played a spoiling role at Christchurch.
No sooner had Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews won the toss and elected to field then light rain forced a delay at a chilly Hagley Oval.
But fortunately for the players and hardy spectators, the match -- which took place nearly four years to the day since an earthquake devastated Christchurch -- started in a touch of drizzle just a matter of minutes later than scheduled.
McCullum, bidding to lead his side to a maiden World Cup title after six semi-final appearances, cover-drove his first ball to the boundary and made a quickfire 65 before he holed out off left-arm spinner Rangana Herath, the first bowler to take a wicket at this World Cup.
Meanwhile the hard-hitting Anderson, out off the last ball of the innings, made 75 off just 46 deliveries faced.
The most astonishing feature of the innings, however, was that Sri Lanka spearhead Lasith Malinga, went wicketless in an expensive 10-over spell costing 84 runs.
"They (New Zealand) batted really well," said Sri Lanka s Jeevan Mendis. "We need two batsmen to step up and the rest bat around them."
Worryingly for Sri Lanka -- the 1996 champions and beaten finalists at the last two World Cups -- New Zealand have never lost a home one-day international after scoring more than 300 runs batting first.
There will be little love lost later Saturday when arch-rivals Australia and England meet for a Valentine s Day clash in front of an estimated crowd of more than 90,000 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
Australia are in search of a fifth World Cup crown and England their first, having made the most recent of their three losing appearances in the final when the tournament was last staged in Australia and New Zealand in 1992.
The Australians will be overwhelming favourites to launch their 2015 campaign with a victory given they ve beaten England in 13 of their last 15 home ODI matches.
However, defending champions India are the only team to have lifted the trophy on their own turf in the tournament s 40-year history.
"You can view that as pressure if you like, or you can view that as a wonderful opportunity and an honour," said stand-in skipper George Bailey of playing in a home World Cup.
England, who ditched captain Alastair Cook before they set off for Australia, appear a long shot to end their World Cup drought but coach Peter Moores told the BBC: "I think in the team we can attack from a lot of different positions."
If Australia-England represents cricket s oldest international rivalry, India-Pakistan is its fiercest and the two Asian nations will open their World Cup against one another in Adelaide on Sunday in a game for which tickets sold out within 20 minutes.
Pakistan, who won their only World Cup in Australia in 1992, have endured a chaotic build-up with match-winning spinner Saeed Ajmal suspended because of a suspect action and eight players already fined for breaking a curfew.
South Africa, looking to end their World Cup heartache, boast some of the world s leading players, including captain AB de Villiers -- who, against the West Indies, recently smashed the fastest one-day international century, off just 31 balls.
West Indies won the first two World Cups in 1975 and 1979 and were runners-up in 1983 but since then, their best performance was a run to the semi-finals in 1996.
Serial giant-killers Ireland, as well as Scotland, will look to cause an upset but the Celtic nations will have to cede heroic underdog status at this tournament to Afghanistan.
Making their debut at the World Cup, it has been an incredible journey for Afghanistan whose players learnt the game as refugees in Pakistan -- a game that was once banned by the Taliban.
