Tuffey's appeal falls on deaf ears. (Getty Images)

By Brenden Nel, PA International, Bloemfontein

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Sri Lanka made a positive start to their World Cup campaign as they beat New Zealand by 47 runs in their Pool B match at Goodyear Park.

The sub-continent side set up an imposing target of 272 and then bowled with aggression and discipline to skittle the Kiwis out for 225 in the 46th over, despite a gem of an innings by Scott Styris.

While the Kiwi batting crumbled, the mainstay was Styris who played a magnificent maiden century innings of 141 off 125 balls with six sixes and three fours.

In the end the big-hitting Styris tried his arm once too often and was caught on the square leg boundary by Chaminda Vaas off the bowling of Russel Arnold to end the Kiwi fightback.

Styris' innings was made off 104 balls with three fours and two sixes, and is a new personal best, surpassing his previous of 85 set at Beausejour against the West Indies in the 2001/2 season.

Styris' innings held the batting line-up together as he looked comfortable with the Sri Lankan mix of medium pace and spin that was thrown at him.

The fact that Styris scored all the boundaries for his side bar two that were crafted by Chris Cairns tells a big story about the Kiwi batting.

But even Styris, like Sanath Jayasuriya before him, survived on his luck as he was dropped on 56 by Pulasthi Gunaratne on the midwicket boundary after trying to hit Aravinda de Silva out of the ground.

Stranded at the other end was Shane Bond, who was left unbeaten on two.

Arnold returned the best figures for the Sri Lankans, taking three for 47 in his spell.

After losing three early wickets, it seemed that Cairns and Styris had steadied the ship with a hard-worked partnership of 78, before Cairns played the most simple return to be caught and bowled by de Silva for 32 off 56 balls.

Wicketkeeper Lou Vincent followed shortly afterwards, slashing a ball from Jayasuriya to backward point straight to Muttiah Muralitharan to depart for a solitary run and leave the score at 94 for five.

Chris Harris came in and helped Styris push the ball around the park, but eventually tried to cut Muralitharan once too often and played onto his own stumps.

Jacob Oram tried his best but eventually danced down the wicket once too often and was stumped by Kumar Sangakkara off the bowling of Muralitharan for 12.

With things getting desperate, Andre Adams tried to hoist one over the square leg boundary, but only found the grasping hands of Jehan Mubarak, who was on the field for Hashan Tilakaratne, to depart for a single.

Arnold struck again when he had a hapless Daryl Tuffey caught behind by Sangakkara for four

Earlier Sri Lanka struck early to leave New Zealand at a desperate 15 for three after six overs in their reply.

But most of it was the Black Caps' own doing as they played poor shots and did not help their own cause with their batting attitude.

Nathan Astle was the first to go for a duck, running a suicide single to Vaas and simply was not anywhere near completing when Vaas turned and threw down the stumps at the other end.

Captain Stephen Fleming soon followed, fishing outside the off stump to edge Gunaratne to Sangakkara for a single.

Craig McMillan and Styris looked to be steadying the ship when McMillan followed his captain's example and fished at a Gunaratne ball to edge and be out in exactly the same fashion for three.

New Zealand had been desperate to win the game after they announced they would forfeit four points by refusing to honour their game against Kenya in Nairobi over security fears.