Trent Boult did the early damage and his pace bowling comrades followed suit as New Zealand took a smothering hold on the first Test against Sri Lanka.

The tourists were dismissed for 138 on the stroke of tea at Hagley Oval in response to the Black Caps’ 441.

It hands a lead of 303 to the hosts, who have enforced the follow-on.

Boult (3-25) skittled the first three batsmen, including the dangerous Kumar Sangakkara for six, to reduce Sri Lanka to 3-15.

The two openers were trapped lbw by quick inswingers but the next eight batsmen were all out caught, struggling to handle the bounce and movement attained by the home seam attack.

Neil Wagner (3-60), Tim Southee (2-17) and allrounder Jimmy Neesham (2-28) dominated the second session, snaffling the last seven wickets for 80 runs.

Batting appearing considerably harder than the opening day when McCullum blasted his blistering 195.

Captain counterpart Angelo Matthews provided the only real resistance, reaching a dogged 50 before he was the seventh wicket to fall, caught in the deep off Wagner.

It continued an exceptional year for allrounder Mathews, who has scored 1094 runs at an average of 78.1.

He was also their most successful bowler in the first innings, taking 3-39.

His 43-run stand for the fourth wicket with Lahiru Thirimanne (24) was their best after they resumed the second session at 3-38, with the rest of the order falling to a succession of loose attacking shots.

Boult became the 13th New Zealand bowler to claim 100 Test scalps when he removed Dimuth Karunaratne for a duck on the fourth ball of the innings.

Fellow-opener Kaushal Silva (4) departed four overs later before Sangakkara edged to a diving Southee at third slip.

It left Sangakkara six runs short of becoming the fifth batsman to score 12,000 Test runs.

Earlier the tourists claiming the last three Black Caps wickets for 12 runs after they had resumed at 7-429.

Southee and Boult were both caught behind without scoring while Wagner (4) cut straight to point. Craig was unbeaten on 12.

Sri Lanka pace bowler Suranga Lakmal took the last two wickets in his 20th over to finish with 3-90.