India suffered a spectacular collapse to lose their tri-series opener with New Zealand by a mammoth 200 runs on Tuesday.

With the bulk of their top order all too comfortable with the low and slow pitches experienced across their recent three-Test series against Sri Lanka, the tourists were found severely wanting on a Dambulla deck which offered the faster bowlers plenty of swing, seam and bounce.

Chasing a formidable target of 289 in the wake of Ross Taylor and Scott Styris' rearguard 190-run partnership earlier in the day, India fell from 39 without loss to 67 for seven after 19 overs and then 88 all out in 29.3 overs as Daryl Tuffey and company made hay.

Virender Sehwag and Dinesh Karthik, playing in the absence of the crocked Gautam Gambhir, kicked off the Indian reply with gay abandon, throwing the bat at anything and everything before parting to successive deliveries.

Sehwag, in typical fashion, was intent on swiping the cover off the ball at every turn, and was unfortunate to glove a poor delivery from Tuffey, which begged to be clubbed over midwicket, down the leg-side to wicketkeeper Gareth Hopkins.

Karthik, unlucky to be stuck lbw by umpire Taufel for 14 when television replays showed Kyle Mills' errant line to be ballooning over and well wide of leg-stump, had barely made it back to the pavilion when the middle order steadily began to lay to waste the work done by the openers.

One would've been forgiven for mistaking any one of Rohit Sharma (four), Suresh Raina (five), Yuvraj Singh (six) and later Praveen Kumar (one) as New Zealand's fielding coach, as the quartet proceeded to methodically offer easy catching practice to the Black Caps' slip cordon. While Sharma, Raina and Kumar were flummoxed by the considerable lift generated outside the off-stump by Tuffey, who bowled unchanged for eight overs on the trot, in particular, Yuvraj needs a long, hard look at his severe lack of footwork after doing himself a dirty despite an ugly, wide, half-volley from Andy McKay.

The bowling Powerplay, from over 10 to 15, for the record, brought India a mere six runs at the loss of two wickets.

Mahendra Dhoni had earlier run himself out for two to break the string of catches to the cordon, but Abhimanyu Mithun (four) soon picked up on the trend again to oblige captain Taylor his fourth catch of the match - all of them in the slips - and see the score limp to 82 for eight.

With the writing all but entirely on the wall, debutant all-rounder Kane Williamson took the opportunity to make up for his duck five or so hours earlier. Ravindra Jadeja's dance down the track in a quest to go big over long-off didn't see him meet the turn at its pitch, and Styris - yes, in the slips - did the rest.

Ashish Nehra (four), at least, didn't oblige the slip cordon, plugging Mills' return loosener to mid-off to finalise a quite humiliating defeat for India.

One could argue, and Dhoni's men probably will, that they were not afforded enough time to switch from one-day to Test mode. Just 48 hours, in fact. But for a team who sits atop the Test rankings and second in the ICC's ODI hierarchy to go down by such a monstrous margin is ultimately inexcusable.

Earlier, captain Taylor came marginally close to scoring his first ODI ton in almost two years, only to fail at the final hurdle. However, his 95, alongside Styris' 89, carried the Kiwis' recovery from 28 for three the bulk of the way to 288 all out.

Near 200 runs between the talented duo in conditions conducive to the swing of Nehra (four for 47) and the seam of Kumar (three for 43) left Peter Ingram (12), Martin Guptill (11) and Williamson (zero), in need of some serious batting practice against quality new-ball bowling.

In the top order's defence, the elements did even out as Taylor and Styris' collective effort progressed, with a large part of their 190-run governance coming against four spinners, none of them kingpin Harbhajan Singh, who has been ruled out of the series with a calf strain.

Delivery of the Day
After striding to the crease with his stomach feeling the effects of debutant nerves, Williamson appeared pretty composed in the face of the swinging ball to begin with. Until, that is, Kumar churned out a near perfect delivery to open the rookie right up. Pitching it on a penny and getting it to move away just a touch, the seamer struck the right-hander on the pads dead in front of the stumps to send him on his way for a quacker. True, Williamson could've looked to play straighter instead of chasing a first single through mid-on, but there's no taking away from Kumar's cracker.

Shot of the Day
We've seen it time and time again in the Indian Premier League, and Tuesday saw Bangalore recruit Taylor hammer as much home for his country. That brutish slog-sweep of his has seen many bowlers cower back to their mark with their tails between there legs. None more so than part-time spinner Sehwag, who felt the full force of Taylor's savagery over midwicket for six.

Defining Moment of the Day
New Zealand's total could have been much less imposing had Dhoni been a touch sharper behind the stumps during the 19th over of the day. Styris, on just 16 at the time, charged down the track to belt Ojha straight for a biggie. Styris missed the ball, as did the Indian captain and wicketkeeper, with a solitary bye the result. Indeed, there was a lot of drift through the air and rip off the track. But Dhoni really could've done better. Styris, of course, went on to make 89.

Jonhenry Wilson