Trent Boult led an inspired bowling display to help New Zealand down Sri Lanka by five wickets yesterday and move to the brink of the World Cup semi-finals.

Chasing a modest 172 for victory, New Zealand rode on an opening stand between Devon Conway (45) and Rachin Ravindra (42) to achieve the target with 160 balls to spare in Bengaluru.

The Kiwis remain in fourth position with 10 points ahead of Pakistan and Afghanistan and a with much superior net run-rate than their rivals.

Both Pakistan and Afghanistan need improbable victory margins in their last matches against England and South Africa respectively to have any of chance of making the final four.

"There's a few teams that could end up on similar points," said New Zealand captain Kane Williamson.

"It's out of our control, we have a couple of trainings, a couple of days off, I don't know how it will look but it's great."

The Black Caps, in their last league match, bounced back from four straight losses to close in on a likely semi-final clash against undefeated India.

Ravindra, who also took two wickets, added to his blazing form in the tournament including three centuries to edge past South Africa's Quinton de Kock and top the batting chart with 565 runs.

Both left-handed openers struck regular boundaries before Dushmantha Chameera broke through with the wicket of Conway and soon Ravindra followed his partner to the pavilion.

Williamson fell for 14 and Mark Chapaman was run out but Daryl Mitchell's attacking 43 ensured an easy way home despite his departure 10 runs short of the target.

Boult returned figures of 3-37 after the Kiwis elected to field first and bundled out Sri Lanka for 171 in 46.4 overs.

Opener Kusal Perera smashed 51 but the rest of the batting fell apart.

Boult took the wickets of skipper Kusal Mendis, Sadeera Samarawickrama and Charith Asalanka, who was given not out but the Kiwis successfully reviewed the decision in their favour.

The Mendis strike was Boult's 50th World Cup wicket Cup to enter elite company including Glenn McGrath, Muttiah Muralitharan, Mitchell Starc, Lasith Malinga and Wasim Akram.

Leg-spinner Mitchell Santner struck twice with his left-arm spin to claim the key wickets of Angelo Mathews (16) and Dhananjaya de Silva (19).

"In the first 10 overs we lost too many wickets and that meant we struggled in the middle overs," said skipper Mendis after Sri Lanka suffered their seventh loss in nine league matches.