History was made in Aberdeen yesterday as Ireland, the World Cup heroes of a year ago, collapsed to a record one-day international defeat by New Zealand in the opening match of the triangular one-day series. After their bowlers had been taken apart first by Brendon McCullum and then James Marshall in an impressive total of 402 for two, the Irish batsmen failed spectacularly to end with a tame run-out on 112.

It was ruthless stuff from the men in black, with McCullum battering ten sixes on his way to 166 off only 135 balls, incredibly his first century in one-day internationals. He peppered the boundary even when obviously worried about a crack in his bat, holing out going for another big hit.

That gave Marshall the chance to take over, and he accelerated smoothly to 161 in a more conventional innings to take his team to the sixth highest total in one-day international cricket - and the highest for New Zealand, beating their 397 for five against a decimated Zimbabwe team two years ago - and give Ireland an almost impossible target. The opening partnership of 266 was only 20 runs short of the world record, set against England by Upul Tharanga and Sanath Jayasuriya of Sri Lanka, two years ago to the day.

The men in green, weakened by injury and English county call-ups with only three of their World Cup squad from last year available, never looked like making a match of it, and only a late flourish by Paul Connell, who had also been the pick of the bowlers, got them past three figures. But they never threatened to reach the 145 they needed to avoid going into the record books as the victims of the biggest drubbing in one-day internationals. The previous heaviest defeat was Bermuda's 257-run loss to India at last year's World Cup.

Kyle McCallan, the captain, described the result as humiliating, but vowed that his players would bounce back to respectability today when they face Scotland in the second match in the series. “If anyone still needs to be motivated after that performance there must be questions,” he said. “The players are going to have to take a close look at themselves.”

Scotland should not read too much into the result, knowing that a team like New Zealand, still on a high after demolishing England in the one-day series, are capable of inflicting that sort of pain on any of the second tier of cricketing countries. Neither will they have learned anything much in trying to prepare for today's game before they get their turn to tackle New Zealand tomorrow, with McCullum already named in the team.

“I can't really ask too much more,” Daniel Vettori, the New Zealand captain, said. “In both facets of the game, we were outstanding. We set the bar pretty high in terms of this Tri-Series and now we need to keep that momentum going for the Scotland game.”

Scoreboard
New Zealand
J A H Marshall c Wilson b Strydom 161
B B McCullum c Haire b Eaglestone 166
L R P L Taylor not out 59
D R Flynn not out 0
Extras (b 4, lb 7, w 5) 16
Total (2 wkts, 50 overs) 402
G D Elliott, J D P Oram, G J Hopkins, *D L Vettori, J S Patel, T G Southee and M J Mason did not bat.
Fall of wickets: 1-266, 2-380.
Bowling: Connell 9-0-95-0; Eaglestone 7-0-60-1; Strydom 8-0-63-1; Botha 10-0-66-0; McCallan 8-0-55-0; Kidd 8-0-52-0.

Ireland
R Strydom c Taylor b Mason 11
G C Wilson b Southee 21
P R Stirling c Hopkins b Oram 4
A C Botha c Hopkins b Southee 6
A R White c Hopkins b Mason 7
R S Haire b Mason 2
A D Poynter c Hopkins b Southee 7
*W K McCallan c Hopkins b Patel 10
G E Kidd c Taylor b Elliott 15
P Connell not out 22
P S Eaglestone run out 4
Extras (w 1, nb 2) 3
Total (28.3 overs) 112
Fall of wickets: 1-29, 2-33, 3-41, 4-48, 5-52, 6-52, 7-66, 8-71, 9-93.
Bowling: Southee 6-0-23-3; Mason 7-0-34-3; Oram 5-0-9-1; Patel 5.3-2-23-1; Elliott 5-1-22-1.
Umpires: P K Baldwin (Germany) and S J Davis (Australia).