The White Ferns have suffered their first-ever series defeat to Sri Lanka after going down 2-1 in their ODI series following a rain-affected third match in Galle.
New Zealand won the toss and elected to bat first in the series-decider, reaching 127/2 from 31 overs of play before persistent rain brought an end to the innings.
After opener Bernadine Bezuidenhout departed early, Suzie Bates and Sophie Devine settled in for a composed partnership for the third wicket.
Bates finished with an unbeaten 63 while Devine was 38 not out before the rain kicked in.
That led Sri Lanka to chase a revised target of 196 in 29 overs via the DLS method and Chamari Athapaththu wasted no time in getting them there.
Athapaththu smashed an unbeaten 80-ball 140 runs to carry her side to victory with eight wickets and two overs to spare, and with it claimed Sri Lanka claimed their first ever bilateral win over New Zealand.
Bates said following the match the team would take plenty away from the series - their first tour of Sri Lanka.
"We never like losing but there's a bigger picture for this team," Bates said.
"We've got a lot of younger players that we're developing and we know we have to be batter at playing in sub-continent conditions so we would've like to have nailed it this series but there's a bright future for some of these players and the more we get these experiences and conditions, the better."
White Ferns coach Ben Sawyer was much blunter in his analysis, saying it was in general a sub-par performance from his side.
"Not our best performance, probably a few behind with the bat," he said.
"We were a bit unfortunate with the rain as I think we were set up to get 260-270 and that would have put a bit of pressure on.
"But we bowled pretty poorly if we're honest."
The two sides now meet in the three-match T20 series with the first in Colombo on Saturday.
SHARE ME