They slipped to 118 ranking points, equal with South Africa, who beat Sri Lanka in Johannesburg on Saturday to go 3-0 up.

South Africa will overtake Australia if they win the remaining two matches in that series. When Kane Williamson won the toss he had no hesitation in batting first on the Hamilton wicket, correctly forecasting it would slow up as the day wore on and Boult would come into his own.

But in the prime early batting conditions, New Zealand appeared to have under-performed with their 281 for nine, despite Taylor’s 107 off 101 balls and his century partnership with Dean Brownlie who made 63.

With rankings and the series at stake after New Zealand won the first ODI by six wickets and the second was washed out, Aaron Finch and Shaun Marsh made a flying start to Australia’s reply, averaging more than six an over.

They were particularly harsh on Tim Southee, whose opening four-over spell cost 30 runs, while new-ball partner and man-of-the-match Boult then had one for 10.

Matthew Wade will play his first Twenty20 International in seven months when he comes into the Australian side as a specialist batsman for the final match against Sri Lanka in Colombo.

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Aaron Finch remains sidelined with a broken finger and with George Bailey returning home as scheduled due to family reasons, coach Darren Lehmann has been left with a bare minimum 12 players for the second and final T20 clash of the series.

“That I can give you,” Lehmann said. “We’ve only got 12 fit players as Finch is not available and George has gone home so Wade will play.”

Peter Nevill will continue to take the gloves for Australia, while Wade and Bailey were only selected to stay on for the extra matches after Finch and Chris Lynn suffered late injuries.

The only change could come to Australia’s bowling attack, with the in-form John Hastings set to return to the line-up after being left out of Australia’s opening 85-run win on Wednesday morning (AEST). All-rounder Moises Henriques, who conceded 12 runs per over in that match, could be the man to make way for Hastings.

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The Aussies put aside their embarrassing 3-0 Test whitewash to grind out a hard-fought victory on a dry slow wicket and take an early advantage in the five-match series. A determined looking Smith led the way with a gritty 58 under lights in the Sri Lankan capital, as the Aussies survived a late flurry of wickets to reach 7-228 and pass the victory total with 3.1 overs to spare.

Finch settled early nerves in the run chase with some hard-hitting that included a six in the first over, eventually scoring 56 off 46 deliveries against an attack shorn of injured spin king Rangana Herath.