Brendon McCullum reignited his love affair with Hagley Oval as New Zealand posted an imposing 5-331 in the World Cup’s opening game against Sri Lanka.

Black Caps skipper McCullum opened the tournament on a blazing note, cracking three of the first four deliveries he faced for boundaries after being sent in.

His dismissal, for 65 off 49 balls, sucked some energy out of the innings before late fireworks from Corey Anderson (75 off 46).

It has given the tournament co-hosts every chance of ending Sri Lanka’s five-game winning streak against them at World Cups.

McCullum’s two other innings at the redeveloped ground were also sizzlers against Sri Lanka – 195 off 134 balls in the Boxing Day Test and 51 off 29 in the first ODI last month.

Play started six minutes late because of morning drizzle and Sri Lanka appeared to struggle with the wintry temperature and the hot bat of McCullum, who tallied 10 fours and a memorable straight six.

He put on 111 inside 16 overs for the opening stand with Martin Guptill (49 off 62) before being caught inches inside the boundary rope by Jeevan Mendis.

Kane Williamson (57 off 65) was caught by a diving Dimuth Karunaratne but not before cruising past 50 for the 13th time in his last 17 innings.

Ross Taylor (14) departed next ball, stumped off legspinner Mendis (2-5 off two overs), allowing the visitors to temporarily stymie the scoring rate.

Anderson accelerated in rollicking partnerships of 65 and 73 with Grant Elliott (29) and Luke Ronchi (29 not out).

Seamer Suranga Lakmal (2-62) impressed at times, along with spinner Rangana Herath (1-37 off nine).

Pace bowler Lasith Malinga (0-84) struggled for control in his first ODI for nearly six months after recovering from ankle surgery. He was bludgeoned for 23 runs by McCullum in his fourth over.

Earlier, New Zealand named Adam Milne for the contentious third seamer spot, ahead of Kyle Mills and Mitchell McClenaghan.

The other omitted squad members were batsman Tom Latham and spinner Nathan McCullum.