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Australia overcame a slow start to beat Zimbabwe by 91 runs in their opening World Cup clash in Ahmedabad.

Having chosen to bat, the combination of nagging spin from Zimbabwe and cautious batting from the world champions led to what looked like a below-par total of 262 for six wickets.

But the Zimbabwean top order was outfoxed by Australia's pace attack, and having slumped to 44 for the loss of four wickets they limped along in reply until they were finally bowled out for 171.

"A good start for us today," said Ricky Ponting after he had led his side to a 24th consecutive World Cup victory as captain.

"I thought Zimbabwe bowled and fielded particularly well - we just kept ourselves in the game, got ourselves a decent total."

Australia were curiously subdued, with opening duo Shane Watson and Brad Haddin taking no risks during the powerplay overs.

Zimbabwe, opening with Christopher Mpofu and slow left-armer Raymond Price - rated as the fourth-best bowler in ODIs according to the official rankings - restricted the pair to a meagre 28 runs from the first 10 overs.

Mpofu was carted for 17 in the 15th over as the pair threatened to break the shackles, but skipper Elton Chigumbura turned back to spin, and the combination of off-spin from Prosper Utseya and Graeme Cremer's leg-breaks restored control.

The first wicket fell, too, as Haddin departed for a ponderous 29 from 66 deliveries after a successful referral.

Ponting, however, said that keeping wickets was an orchestrated plan.

"I think [batting this way] will be our philosophy throughout the tournament," he confirmed.

"We could have gone for more runs, but there wasn't much bounce and we kept wickets in hand and gave ourselves a chance to get a total."

Ponting himself looked busier on his arrival to the wicket and Watson picked up his strike rate as Australia moved up a gear, but Cremer trapped Watson leg-before - again only awarded after Zimbabwe opted to review the decision - and Ponting departed for the 30th run-out of his ODI career when Mpofu's bullet-throw from the deep caught the unlucky captain short of his ground.

With two new men at the crease Australia had to build again, and Michael Clarke got the runs ticking in partnership with a less fluent Cameron White.

White, pushing for boundaries, was clean-bowled by Mpofu, but that brought in David Hussey and Steven Smith for cameos, while Clarke pushed on to a punchy half-century.

Zimbabwe's opening pair both played a couple of scintillating shots - Charles Coventry's flat six over point being a particular highlight - but after he skied a hook which Brett Lee caught off his own bowling the wickets began to tumble.

The pace triumvirate of Lee, Shaun Tait and Mitchell Johnson all looked accurate in tricky conditions, and all three took wickets as the game slipped away from Zimbabwe.

There were moments of resistance from Zimbabwe such as Sean Williams bludgeoning Jason Krejza for a slog-swept six, but the wickets fell at regular intervals.

Krejza, Australia's leading spinner at the World Cup in the absence of Nathan Hauritz, removed captain Elton Chigumbura and Regis Chakabva as he settled into rhythm.

Cremer impressed with a top-score of 37 in partnership with Utseya, but when he fell to Johnson in the left-armer's second spell, the writing was on the wall.

And Johnson then removed Mpofu to finish with impressive figures of 9.2-2-19-4.

It was a curious performance from Australia and a spirited one from Zimbabwe, but class told and Australia eventually made the scoreline a convincing one ahead of their next match - a fascinating trans-Tasman tussle with New Zealand in Nagpur on February 25.

New Zealand thumped Kenya by 10 wickets in a lop-sided Group A match of the World Cup on Sunday that appears to justify bids to trim the 2015 edition of the showpiece event by leaving out the whipping boys.

The sparse crowd at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai witnessed a total mis-match as New Zealand unleashed their pace trio of Tim Southee (3-13), Hamish Bennett (4-16) and Jacob Oram (3-2) to bundle out Kenya for a meagre 69 in 23.5 overs and returned to overwhelm the target in eight overs.

There was not much room for batting practice chasing a 70-run victory target but openers Martin Guptill (39) and Brendon McCullum (26) stroked some easy boundaries before completing the chase.

The outcome strengthens the International Cricket Council's bid for a 10-team World Cup in 2015, accommodating the weaker teams in the Twenty20 World Cup instead.

"I don't think we expected it to be that easy," New Zealand skipper Daniel Vettori said after a perfect start to the tournament suggested the team was determined to put behind a poor build-up that included whitewash against Bangladesh.

"To bowl well and allow the batsmen such a small chase is always pleasing. It was a fantastic efforts by the bowlers."

Kenya captain Jimmy Kamande won the toss and opted to bat first before a horror story unfolded in front of his eyes.

Two days before he turns 24, Bennett ran through the top order as Kenya's top half was back in the hut even before the team total had reached the 50-run mark.

Openers Alex Obanda (6) and Seren Waters (16) began cautiously even if run-rate was nothing to write home about.

Southee trapped Obanda in the seventh over before Bennett suddenly took fancy to beating the blade and hitting the pad of the flummoxed Kenyan batsmen, claiming three of his four victims lbw and he expects his performance will help his case for regular selections.

"Whenever there is a chance, you got to try and take it. I got a good result and hopefully I can keep pushing for my selection," said Bennett, who picked the man of the match award in his World Cup debut.

Southee dismissed Nehemiah Odhiambo and Shem Ngoche off the last two deliveries of his sixth over but could not get a chance to complete his hat-trick as Oram removed Elijah Otieno for a duck to drop the curtains on the Kenyan innings.

Oram flashed a shy smile as he waved apologetically to Southee.

Only three Kenyan batsmen - Waters, Collins Obuya (14) and Rakep Patel (15 not out) - managed double digit scores as Kenya were bundled out for the lowest score recorded at the Chidambaram Stadium. It was also the fifth lowest total in ODIs.

"We were nervous today but the New Zealand bowlers really bowled well," Kamande said, denying the team was under pressure to perform to justify their presence in one day cricket's biggest stage.

"There was no such pressure. It's up to ICC to decide whether they want 10, five or 50 teams in the World Cup but the thing is the more we get to play against these (Yest) teams, the better we become."

New Zealand missed Kyle Mills' service through a sore back but off-spinner Nathan McCullum recovered from fever to open the attack, a move that is getting increasingly popular among the visiting teams.