Skipper Stephen Fleming's 89-run stand and inspired pace bowling from Kyle Mills and Jacob Oram helped New Zealand to an 87-run victory over South Africa in a limited-overs Champions Trophy cricket match Monday.
New Zealand recorded a total of 195 in 45.4 overs on an uneven pitch.
South Africa was bundled out for 108 after its top order was decimated by penetrative spells from Mills (3-18) and Oram (3-26).
This was the first match in Group B that also includes Sri Lanka and Pakistan, whose pace spearheads Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif were Monday recalled home after failing dope tests conducted by the Pakistan Cricket Board.
The top two teams from each group will advance to the semifinals.
Put in to bat first, opener Fleming saw eight wickets tumble at the other end as his batsmen faltered against deliveries that skidded through. Fleming struck 11 boundaries off 112 balls in posting his 44th limited-overs half-century from 254 matches.
Fleming was the ninth wicket to fall, caught by Shaun Pollock on the fine-leg fence off Jacques Kallis (3-28).
Fleming's composed knock was the only highlight of the innings in which Brian McCullum's 21 was the next best score.
``The ball was stopping a bit on the pitch, but it feels nice to have got runs coming out of the winter,'' said Fleming as New Zealand played its first international game since March.
Both captains said the pitch made run-scoring difficult.
South African captain Graeme Smith said the pitch ``wasn't up to international standards.''
``But there's a lot we can learn from our errors,'' said Smith.
Fleming's opening partner Lou Vincent struck three boundaries in his 17 before becoming the 350th one-day victim of South African pace spearhead Pollock, who bowled him with an inswinger.
Pollock is only the fifth bowler in the world to reach the 350-wicket mark in limited-overs internationals.
Pakistan's Wasim Akram (502) and Waqar Younis (416), and Sri Lanka pair Muttiah Muralitharan (419) and Chaminda Vaas (358) are the only others in this exclusive club.
Nathan Astle (17) then shared a 50-run partnership with Fleming to provide the foundation. Astle departed when he missed the line of a delivery from pacer Andrew Hall.
Hamish Marshall (1), Peter Fulton (2) and Oram (7) were out cheaply, but MuCullum managed to provide the captain some support before giving a return catch to left-arm spinner Robin Peterson (2-34).
New Zealand went into the match without pace spearhead Shane Bond, who was ruled out of this game due to back stiffness, and all-rounder Scott Styris _ out with a strained hamstring.
South Africa's innings got off to a disastrous start as opener Boeta Dippenaar and Herschelle Gibbs perished against Mills without getting off the mark.
Dippenaar was trapped lbw on the fifth ball of the innings and Gibbs had his stumps shattered by a sharp inswinger on the 13th.
Gibbs was playing for the first time in India since he was implicated in a match-fixing case by New Delhi police six years ago. He has twice skipped South African tours to India since then.
Mills then snapped a return catch from Kallis (8).
Smith's 57-ball 42 was the only innings of composure for South Africa, whose batting caved in as Oram skittled Mark Boucher (8), Smith and Pollock (1) before young off-spinner Jeetan Patel (3-11) ran through the lower order.
