There was not quite the batting collapse a la Australia at The Oval, as some had predicted, and the famed Puccini aria Nessun Dorma from the opera Turnadot was not part of the piped music here as it has been during The Ashes series.

As an ailing New Zealand lost the first Test to Sri Lanka by 202 runs here at Galle International and Tillekeratne Dilshan collected the man of the match award – this didn’t require any smart guesswork, did it – the 1-0 series lead heading for Colombo gives Kumar Sangakkara’s team confidence of moving to second on the Test rankings.

However, what told in the end for the Kiwis was a palpable lack of experience and someone, such as retired captain Steve Fleming to guide the inexperienced New Zealanders. When your top five batsmen have less than 30 Test caps between them and knowing nothing of Sri Lankan conditions, it is always going to be a struggle to get big runs on the board. Two half-centuries, a couple of forties and thirties are not going to build match-winning totals.

India, having realised such a blunder have recalled Rahul Dravid to least guide such greenhorns at this highly competetive level. The only batsman among then with a plus 40 batting average is Jesse Ryder who, as have the rest of the side, suffered a type of embolic viral attack which left him drained and not really fit to play on the last afternoon of the first Test at scenic Galle International.

For a start, the pitch made for good, sensible strokeplay, but in a sense, the tourists were ambushed by their decision to bowl first and to a degree, the illness that left them with a dislocated top order and it showed.

Needing 413 to win in the fourth innings as rain affected their early efforts, the task was always going to be beyond them. In the end, it was due to the Vettori grit and grind with an innings of 67 that enabled then to reach 210. With their batting and bowling order disrupted by illness, it left them in a position where they needed someone to respond the way Dilshan has to make a genuine attempt in the second innings. Part of the problem was the dislocation of the top-order on Friday when Daniel Flynn had to open the innings instead of Tim McIntosh.

The illness hampered New Zealand’s bowling efforts as well in the Sri Lanka second innings, but it was largely the Dilshan affect in the second innings which created the platform that Sri Lanka needed to wrap up the first Test.

This was admitted as much by Vettori as the Kiwis, bowling first after winning the toss were left battling for answers after Iain O’Brien haemorrhaged rather than leaked runs and the absence of Daryl Tuffey was felt as he has at least experience of bowling in Sri Lanka conditions when touring with the New Zealand A side several seasons ago. Absence of extra penetration left much to be desired in the way of continuing the pressure on Sri Lanka.

Bowling first after winning the toss is always a gamble as the bowlers need to get their length right early and in this case it is always a Russian roulette style of gamble. It is a matter of winning a session and the Kiwis failed to achieve even that this Test.

This had them. In colloquial terms behind the eight ball throughout the game and was admitted as much by Vettori.

"I do not want to make any excuses for our efforts in the way he played in this game," he said. "The two Dilshan innings kept pressure on us all the time and we needed a positive response in return. It is largely how well he (Dilshan) played and how poorly we bowled to him which created problems from the start."

Vettori had hoped that New Zealand would have been able to bat as long as possible yesterday - "take the game down to the wire" – he explained. He admitted though that this was gong to be difficult with the way the illness of players such as Ryder and Brandon McCullum dictated where they were going to bat in the order and as both were still feeling the after affects of the illness along with the medication.

"I know we would have preferred to put a bigger total together in the first innings and narrow their first innings margin," he said. "Failing to get even close was going to see up battle, and we need to sit down and have a look at our options."

Ryder at one stage called to the dressing room for a bag to vomit in. He ended up with some medication while the jerks on a website in India were jokey about the whole issue of "oh, he’s under the weather."

The problem with New Zealand’s batting this first Test has been the inability of someone to go on and score a big century as well as show a positive approach and the bowling failed. There were also umpiring decisions which did not favour the Kiwis either. If the Jacob Oram blunder was a poor one on the third day, the decision by Daryl Harper against Ross Taylor yesterday didn’t help much either with the delivery from Mahela Jayawardene - surprisingly preferred to Mendis early on - brushing the thigh-pad. It was no problem to Harper though who eschewed any pretence of Anzac solidarity by the palpable decision, and begs the question of why is he so often handling Sri Lankan games on the island.

The fifth day was always gong to be a struggle, starting the day at 31 for one and three batsmen still feeling the after affects if the illness, which in McCullum’s case required a special dispensation to field a reserve wicketkeeper in Reece Young who was not part of the Test squad. It is not easy to prepare aside in such conditions.

While the Muttiah Muralitharan and Ajantha Mendis threat always loomed, Mendis was not as big a problem as initially feared. Mendis three wickets cost him 135 runs poses the question of why the selectors went for Mendis ahead of Rangana Herath.

There was some aggro as well with Thushara Mirando bowling with a lot of energy and had the ball moving sharply off the seam at times, but his discipline went seriously awry after lunch when bowing to Vettori. The Kiwi captain had dug in to try and at least rescue the team from sliding to a bigger defeat than loomed with the departure of Taylor following an out of sorts innings by an ill Tim McIntosh and Ryder