DUNEDIN (NEW ZEALAND), Jan 25 (AFP): New Zealand wrapped up their one-day series against Sri Lanka with a game to spare today when Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor orchestrated a 120-run win in game six.
Williamson (97) and Taylor (96) provided the backbone of New Zealand�s 315-8 in their 50 overs and Sri Lanka were all out for 195 in the 41st over.
The win puts New Zealand 4-1 up in the seven-match series with one game washed out, and captain Brendon McCullum declared himself satisfied with their World Cup build up.
�It was a pretty clinical performance with the bat and I thought the bowlers certainly did a very good job. Overall another step forward for us and we�re very pleased with the series win,� he said.
�We�ve got a couple of different plays. One is to be reasonably aggressive at the start, and if that doesn�t come off we know we�ve still got quality batsmen able to bat a lot of time and still score at a decent runs per over.�
But Sri Lanka, still without their injured strike weapon Lasith Malinga, have concerns about the quality of their attack.
�Our concern is with the bowling,� stand-in captain Lahiru Thirimanne said.
�We bowled 30-35 overs very good but the last 15 overs we couldn�t get the wickets and we also leaked runs. That was disappointing.�
There were also problems with their batting with only Kumar Sangakkara appearing at ease in the run chase with 81 off 66 deliveries.
SCORECARD
New Zealand: M Guptill c Sangakkara b Perera 28, B McCullum c Perera b Prasad 0, K Williamson run out (Prasad/Sangakkara) 97, R Taylor lbw Dilshan 96, C Anderson c Perera b Herath 40, L Ronchi c Karunaratne b Prasad 13, G Elliott not out 21, D Vettori run out 3, K Mills run out 0. Extras: (B-4, LB-4, WD-9) 17. Total: (for 8 wickets, 50 overs) 315. Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-59, 3-176, 4-254, 5-281, 6-292, 7-312, 8-315. Bowling: Lakmal 7-1-31-0, Prasad 10-0-59-2, Herath 10-1-45-1, Perera 10-0-86-1, Mendis 5-0-27-0, Thirimanne 2-0-17-0, Dilshan 6-0-42-1.
Sri Lanka: L Thirimanne c Ronchi b McClenaghan 29, T Dilshan c Ronchi b Anderson 21, K Sangakkara c Vettori b Boult 81, M Jayawardene c McCullum b Anderson 9, D Karunaratne c Mills b Anderson 26, D Chandimal run out (McCullum/Ronchi) 9, J Mendis run out (Anderson/Vettori/Ronchi) 3, T Perera lbw Anderson 2, D Prasad run out (Mills) 2, R Herath not out 1, S Lakmal c Guptill b McClenaghan 3. Extras: (LB-2, WD-6, NB-1) 9. Total: (for 10 wickets, 40.3 overs) 195. Fall of wickets: 1-56, 2-61, 3-82, 4-146, 5-158, 6-168, 7-171, 8-189, 9-191. Bowling: Mills 6-0-29-0, Boult 8-2-31-1, Anderson 10-0-52-4, McClenaghan 4.3-1-29-2, Vettori 8-1-22-0, Williamson 2-0-18-0, Elliott 2-0-12-0.
