When it comes to the One-day game, New Zealand are a little old fashioned; they prefer a steady start aiming to keep wickets in tact for a charge later in the innings. None of this modern day hustle and bustle in the early overs for the Kiwis, although Bryan Young did play very well for his half-century.

He was scoring at better than a run-a-ball when he carelessly lofted one into the out-field where it was safely pouched, causing Young to pound his bat into one of the nearby pitches. Young's annoyance stemmed from his inability to place the ball wide of the fielder in the deep, as his intention was never to try and clear the boundary rope.

The New Zealand method is okay in theory, but it was foiled by Sri Lanka who played a couple of extra spinners, dropping abatsman and a new ball bowler to accommodate the tweakers. By adopting this method, they exposed the Kiwi's weakness against spin and the run rate slowed perceptibly as wickets started to fall at regular intervals after a good start.

The New Zealand top order batsmen also played into the opposition's hands by failing to capitalise on getting a start. Young, Nathan Astle and Stephen Fleming were all guilty as charged, but perhaps the heat and high humidity added to their difficulties. A couple of them looked a little weary and some of the methods of dismissal seemed to suggest the oxygen supply to the brain had short-circuited.

The inclusion of Upul Chandana paid huge dividends for Sri Lanka. Not only did he bowl economically, but he also took three wickets; the scalps of Craig McMillan, Chris Cairns and Adam Parore, three of New Zealand's quicker scorers. The first two were caught in the deep and once they exited the scene New Zealand were always hard pushed to post a tough target.

Realising this it wasa reasonably sedate start by normal Sri Lankan standards. However, having had a sighter and lost his partner, Sanath Jayasuriya suddenly ignited and it wasn't long before he was racing towards fifty. The sight of Chris Harris bowling his little `wobblers' really excited Jayasuriya and he was quickly on to the back foot to punish the right-armer.

In trying to inflict similar damage on Daniel Vettori, Jayasuriya was well caught at cover point, but this hardly caused a blip on the run rate graph as Marvan Attapatu was in scintillating form. Attapatu's play through the off-side was exquisite with his quick footwork and wristy placements.

So depressing was this sight for the New Zealand fieldsmen that on a couple of occasions they just stood and looked at each other as the ball disappeared in the direction of the rope. Perhaps this tardiness was an indication that the inability of their batsmen to come to terms with the slower Sri Lankan pitches had flummoxed the Kiwis and caused the shoulders to droop alittle.

Sensing this, the Sri Lankans really went for the kill in an attempt to further add to New Zealand's depression and also boost their own run rate. Aravinda de Silva perished in the attempt, but the elegant Attapatu maintained his high standard through the off-side to push Sri Lanka to victory with 10 overs to spare. In this mood, it's hard to explain the drought periods that Marvan experiences when the runs really dry up.