Australia completed a hat trick of wins over its fellow World Cup semifinalists on Friday when it handed New Zealand its heaviest ever one-day loss.

Australia, which had already beaten South Africa and Sri Lanka at this tournament, routed New Zealand by 215 runs at Grenada National Stadium to give an ominous demonstration of its form ahead of next week's knockout matches.

Adam Gilchrist, left, Ricky Ponting and Brad Hogg celebrate on Friday.
(Rick Rycroft/Associated Press)

With an unprecedented third straight title in its sights, Australia may have just dealt a knockout blow to the confidence of a team touted as one of its few serious rivals.

"I'd rather be in our room than theirs," Australia captain Ricky Ponting said. "They'll be having all sorts of meetings over the next few days to talk about today's game.

"We'll be having a beer tonight."

Australia finished top of the Super 8s with a maximum 14 points to New Zealand's 10 and will play fourth-place South Africa in a semifinal in St. Lucia on Wednesday.

Third-place New Zealand will be up against Sri Lanka in Jamaica on Tuesday, with the winners meeting in the April 28 final in Barbados.

Although the teams could meet again in the April 28 final in Barbados, New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming insisted that the huge margin of defeat was meaningless because both teams had already qualified for the semifinals.

"If they don't think that's going to affect them at all, then how is any psychological edge ever gained in any game of cricket?" Ponting said. "If we don't take something out of today's game, then no one ever can.

"We've just beaten New Zealand by 215 runs in a World Cup game, so they've got a lot of thinking to do."

England (four points) and host West Indies (two) face each other on Saturday in Brian Lara's final match before retirement. Bangladesh and Ireland also have two, but are near the bottom because of inferior run rates.

Lara, who has amassed the most runs in Test cricket and holds the record scores in a Test (400) and first-class game (501), announced on Thursday that the match against England would be his last in international cricket.

Although neither team can make it to the semifinal, the match will be emotional as England says farewell to coach Duncan Fletcher, who is stepping down after eight years.

Another departure announced on Friday was Dav Whatmore's decision not to stay as coach of Bangladesh.

Whatmore has been linked with a move to India, but he has agreed to stay on for a month while Bangladesh faces India in a Test and one-day series in May.

The man who briefly took the Test match highest scoring record from Lara before the Trinidadian snatched it back with his 400 against England, used his power and placement ability to score 103 off 100 balls against New Zealand in Grenada.

Matthew Hayden's innings was a statement that, with Lara leaving the stage, there is another left-hander who is capable of dominating bowlers in the way the West Indian star has done during his 17-year career.
  
New Zealand's players were maybe guilty of doing too much thinking during the match, concentrating on their semifinal rather than the world champion Australians.

Matthew Hayden hit 103 off 100 balls to lead Australia to 348 for six wickets at Grenada National Stadium before Brad Hogg took 4-29 to bowl out the Black Caps for 133.

It was New Zealand's heaviest ever one-day loss, beating January's 189-run loss to Sri Lanka in Auckland, New Zealand.

"It's probably one of our worst performances and may have been a little bit to do with the dead nature of the game," Fleming said.

"We've had one eye on the game against Sri Lanka. We know Australia's going to be a tough game and you've got to be up for it to compete with them.

"We were a little bit off today."

Ponting hit 66 and Shane Watson 65 off 32 balls as the only unbeaten team in the competition recorded the biggest World Cup win by runs by one test nation over another.

The previous best was England's 202-run win over India in 1975, although that came in a 60 overs-a-side game.

New Zealand appeared to be keeping pace with Australia, reaching 75-2 off the first 10 overs to have a chance of emulating its feats of the southern summer, when it made two of the three biggest winning totals by a team batting second.

However, wickets kept tumbling and there was to be no repeat of those famous wins over Australia in February's Chappell-Hadlee series.

Only opener Peter Fulton, with 62, offered any resistance as the Black Caps were all out with 24.1 of their 50 overs left to give the Aussies' a 21st straight World Cup win.

Missing fast bowler Shane Bond because of a stomach complaint and Jacob Oram with a bruised heel, New Zealand struggled to make an impact on Australia's top order.

Only tight bowling after Hayden's dismissal and intelligent changes by Fleming kept New Zealand in the game.

Hayden reached his 10th one-day century in the next over in an innings containing 10 fours and two sixes. He was eventually out when Scott Styris ran back to long on to take a catch from his own bowling.

Mike Hussey and Watson shared a 77-run stand for the sixth wicket, with Hussey hitting 37 before falling in the final over. Watson, who struck four 4s and four sixes, bludgeoned 24 off the 48th over by Mark Gillespie.