Australia cruises to victory in fourth ODI against New Zealand

Colombo, September 15: Australia cruises to victory in fourth ODI against New Zealand, thrashing them by a whopping 164 runs.

Man-of-the-match Glenn McGrath ripped through the New Zealand top order claiming five for 37 and also joined the select band of bowlers who have claimed 250 or more wickets in one-day internationals.

Australia were given a thundering start by Adam Gilchrist and Mathew Hayden and the following batsmen build on that platform to take them to 296 for seven. Gilchrist walloped 44 from just 30 balls and Hayden contributed 43 as they handed over the stage to Damien Martyn to come and play some stupendous shots.

Martyn exhibited sweet timing and silken grace in his knock 73. Skipper Ricky Ponting and Darren Lehmann contributed 37 and 35 respectively.

The New Zealand fielding was way below par with quite a few catches going down. The bowling lacked discipline and was duly punished.

The Kiwis, who were battered in the field, were low on confidence and it showed in their batting. The quality of pace produced by the lethal Aussie trio of McGrath, Jason Gillespie and Brett Lee was too much for them on a wearing wicket.

It was only the last-wicket pair of Shane Bond and Kyle Mills that added 50 runs to take New Zealand to 132 after they had been reduced to 82 for nine. Shane Warne needed just two balls to come in and end that enterprising partnership when he had Bond stumped for a Kiwi top score of 26.

New Zealand on Sunday clearly missed the services of Chris Cairns, Andre Adams and Shane O'Connor, all of whom could not make the trip here because of injuries. Another three players -- Craig McMillan, Mathew Horne and Brooke Walker -- had pulled out of this tour citing security concerns, which is quite a weird reason when one reviews the scene here.