Nelson, New Zealand: Sri Lanka won the toss and chose to bat on Tuesday in the fourth one-day cricket international against New Zealand.
Captain Angelo Mathews said he was unsure of what to do after studying a bare and brown pitch at the Saxton Oval.
Mathews said "we thought it might get a bit slower as the day goes on so we'll have a bat first."
Sri Lanka made one change to the lineup named for the washed-out third match in Auckland. Spinner Rangana Herath returns in place of medium pacer Dhammika Prasad as the tourists manage the workload of their bowlers.
New Zealand made four changes, bringing back Kane Williamson, Grant Elliott, Tim Southee and Adam Milne in place of Tom Latham, Nathan McCullum, Trent Boult and Matt Henry.
The seven-match series is level at 1-1.
New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum said he also would have batted if he had won the toss.
"We're not too unhappy about bowling," he said. "The surface looks pretty good and hopefully it will stay the same throughout the day. There's a tendency for it to maybe get a bit slower but we'll just have to wait and see."
New Zealand won the first match by three wickets and Sri Lanka won the second by six wickets while the third match was abandoned because of rain.
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Lineups:
New Zealand: Brendon McCullum (captain), Martin Guptill, Kane Williamson, Ross Taylor, Grant Elliott, Corey Anderson, Luke Ronchi, Daniel Vettori, Adam Milne, Tim Southee, Mitchell McClenaghan.
Sri Lanka: Dimuth Karunaratne, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene, Lahiru Thirimanne, Angelo Mathews (captain), Thisara Perera, Jeevan Mendis, Sachithra Senanayake, Nuwan Kulasekara, Rangana Herath.
Umpires: Ian Gould, England, and Derek Walker, New Zealand.
TV umpire: Nigel Llong, England. Match referee: Javagal Srinath, India.
