Muttiah Muralitharan took five wickets yesterday to lead Sri Lanka to a 19-run win over Zimbabwe and a 5-0 sweep in the limited-overs series.

After Sri Lanka were bowled out for 152 for its lowest total in the series, Muralitharan claimed 5-29 for his 10th five-wicket haul in 50-over internationals and Nuwan Kulasekara took 3-14 to bowl out Zimbabwe for 133 at Harare Sports Club.

"When we came here we set ourselves goals. We needed to win 5-0. We did that," Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene said. "Yes, it wasn't convincing, but considering the conditions and that the opposition played well in the last three games, especially with the ball, we have to take that as an achievement.

"We knew it was going to be difficult to get 250 runs on this kind of wicket and we knew we could not afford to play bad shots. We made some mistakes. But the most important thing is that the guys rose up under pressure and came back strongly. We never said it was going to be a walk in the park. We needed to play consistently."

A seventh-wicket partnership of 72 between Zimbabwe captain Prosper Utseya and Keith Dabengwa meant the hosts needed 22 off 51 balls to win after having collapsed to 58-6. But Kulasekara dismissed Dabengwa on 39 and Utseya on 31 to end the comeback.