Muttiah Muralitharan ignored an apparent hamstring injury to take 4-25 as the tournament co-hosts dismissed New Zealand for 153 to record their first win over a test-ranked team at the tournament.

Sri Lanka will finish second in Group A behind the winner of today's match between defending champion Australia and Pakistan.

New Zealand, who also lost to Australia earlier in the group stage, can finish no better than third.

With the Group B final standings still far from clear, both sides will have to wait to find out their quarter-final opponents. Regardless of the opposition, Sri Lanka should head into the knockout stage with plenty of confidence after a convincing win.

New Zealand rued a contentious decision midway through Sri Lanka's innings when Nathan McCullum appeared to take a wonderful diving catch to dismiss Mahela Jayawardene on 26, only for third umpire Amiesh Saheba to decide that the replays did not prove conclusively that the catch was taken cleanly.

Stand-in captain Taylor had to step in to prevent an aggrieved McCullum talking himself into trouble with the umpire at the end of the over.

Jayawardene went on to make 66 in a 145-run partnership with man-of-the-match Sangakkara, after they came together in the fifth over with the score at 19-2. New Zealand had made a bright start, with Tim Southee and Jacob Oram causing havoc with the new ball, but it was set back first by an injury to Hamish Bennett and then by the Jayawardene incident.

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Sri Lanka had reached 87-2 when Jayawardene looked certain to go. Nathan McCullum took a stunning return catch off his own bowling, diving full length to his right to get his fingers to the ball just before it hit the ground.

The on-field umpires weren't sure the ball hadn't grounded and sent the decision to review, and McCullum was clearly furious when Saheba's decision was relayed, despite one replay showing the bowler appearing to take the catch cleanly.

Bennett joined fellow bowlers Kyle Mills and Daniel Vettori on the injury list when he turned his ankle while bowling in the 31st over.

Jayawardene and Sangakkara made the most of the letoff as both reached their half-centuries, with the captain joining a list of 13 other players to score 9,000 ODI runs.