Styris gives Kiwis hope

Even with Styris' unbeaten 111, the Kiwis could muster only a below-par 219 for seven at Queen's Park - undermined by three top-order wickets for Chaminda Vaas and three more for Muttiah Muralitharan.

In pursuit of a win which would equal their best ever 10th in succession, New Zealand were significantly indebted to Styris - who came in at four for two in the third over. His personal haul was a 152-ball century after Stephen Fleming had chosen to bat first on a good surface.

The Kiwis were in trouble by the fifth ball of the match when Fleming went for a duck, lbw to Vaas. Ross Taylor also made nought, in his first appearance since the group stages of this competition because of a hamstring injury.

The number three nicked Vaas behind, where Kumar Sangakkara took an outstanding one-handed catch to his right. Opener Peter Fulton and Styris could take no chances - and the Kiwis' saviour needed 20 balls before opening his account with a four off Vaas.

The introduction of Farveez Maharoof for Dilhara Fernando opened up a few more scoring opportunities - but there was a scare on the way for each batsman.

Styris was way short of his ground on eight when Muralitharan's throw from mid-on missed the stumps - and Fulton mistimed a simple catch to midwicket off Maharoof only for a no-ball to be called.

Fulton managed only another 10 runs before holing out at deep square-leg to give Vaas (three for 33) his third wicket, at the start of his second spell.

Murali (three for 32) soon got rid of Craig McMillan, via a faulty sweep into the hands of short fine-leg - leaving Styris and Jacob Oram with much work to do. They accomplished some of it before Oram fell to a steepling catch by Maharoof off Tillekeratne Dilshan.

That was the first of three wickets to fall for 13 runs in three overs but, after Brendon McCullum had gone lbw to Murali and then Daniel Vettori swept aerially to deep square-leg, Styris managed to add an unbroken 64 with James Franklin in the last 10 overs.