Kane Williamson secures New Zealand series win over Sri Lanka

Centurion Kane Williamson stayed cool to steer New Zealand to a tense five-wicket win over Sri Lanka in the second Test and a 2-0 series triumph in Hamilton.

Williamson ended 108 not out after resuming at 78 as New Zealand progressed from 142-5 overnight to reach its winning target of 189 after just 55 minutes of play on the fourth morning of a match which saw dramatic changes of fortune.

Both teams seemed to squander winning positions before the Black Caps edged to the brink of victory by the end of the third day on Sunday on which 16 wickets fell.

Sri Lanka, which led by 55 runs on the first innings after losing an influential toss, had made its way to 71-0 in its second innings to take command of the match only to suffer a catastrophic collapse, losing all 10 wickets for 62 runs to be rattled out for 133.

That left New Zealand a mediocre target but the home side's batsmen showed the same recklessness as Sri Lanka's and it stumbled to 142-5 by stumps, having lost almost all of its top order, before Williamson asserted himself and took control.

"It was an interesting surface," Williamson said. "The Sri Lanka bowlers put us under a lot of pressure and we did the same when we learned from them.

"I think it's very important to stick to your game plan when that's going or come up with a game plan that's clear in your mind and you're able to stick to. It was an interesting game, I'm sure it was pretty good to watch."

Williamson had only a little support late on the third day from Ross Taylor, who made 35, and captain Brendon McCullum, who struggled to 18, battling all the time against an apparent impulse to throw his wicket away.

The same impulse had overtaken the Sri Lanka team earlier in the day as it tried to enlarge the advantage it enjoyed when it bowled out New Zealand for 237 in reply to its own first innings of 292.

Sri Lanka achieved that first innings total in difficult circumstances, after it lost the toss and had been sent in on a pitch, newly laid in Patumahoe clay, which was richly green and seaming.

With the help of captain Angelo Mathews, who surpassed 4,000 test runs on his way to the innings top-score of 73, and Milinda Sirwardana who made a mature 62, Sri Lanka defied New Zealand's four seamers to reach a total which was well over par.

Sri Lanka paceman Dushmantha Chameera had taken nine wickets in the match, with New Zealand finding his bounce often too much.

While wickets continued to fall, Williamson stood firm and emphatically atoned for a first-innings failure, when he made just one, to earn the man of the match award.

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BJ Watling swept the winning run, but it was Williamson's day, again with a 13th career Test ton from the Tauranga-born batsman extending his team's unbeaten Test run to 13 games.

"We just had to bat well and dig deep, but we made a real mockery out of our second innings batting and we just couldn't give enough runs for the bowlers to get them out," Mathews said. 

"It is actually very disappointing the way the game unfolded towards the end.

"We had our chance, especially after getting them all out for 240-odd in the first innings. We had a healthy lead."

New Zealand and Sri Lanka now head into limited-overs action, with the first of five one-day internationals scheduled for Christchurch on Boxing Day.