Fleming has been one-day skipper for 10 years

Fleming, who still wants to play one-day cricket under a new skipper, admitted they had been "outclassed".

He said: "It was a true reflection of where the teams are. The margin of victory was probably about right.

"They've got some big-game players who fronted up and a lot of artillery in their bowling attack."

Fleming, who has been skipper for 10 years and was playing in his 280th limited overs match, said Sri Lanka's bowling attack had been the main difference between the two sides.

"The new ball attack of Lasith Malinga and Chaminda Vaas is outstanding and they've still got Muttiah Muralitharan to come. We tried to be positive against Murali, but he's class, and sometimes that can result in slumps.

"We hoped we could restrict them to a score of around 250 but we didn't bowl and field well enough to do that and Mahela Jayawardene (who scored 115 not out) played a superb innings.

"And the area we thought we'd be good at, the last 10 overs, we were very poor.

"The two sides we identified as being more skilled than us were Australia and Sri Lanka, so coming third or fourth was probably a fair result."

He continued: "Losing the toss might have been a little bit important - we would have liked to go on [first] and get a score but I still don't think it would have changed the outcome.

Daniel Vettori is Fleming's likely successor as skipper

"I'm not sure there was much more we could have done. As far as planning goes, we were extremely clear in our minds what we wanted to do."

Fleming led the team to victory in the 2000 ICC Knockout tournament in Kenya and recently to a 3-0 home win over Australia in the Chappell Hadlee Trophy series but the semi-finals in 1999 and this year were the best they could manage under his captaincy at the World Cup.

Explaining his decision to give up the job, he said: "I have been contemplating this for some time having discussed it at length with my family, coach John Bracewell and manager Lindsay Crocker.

"Today's result had no bearing on my decision. I just wanted to wait until the end of the tournament so it did not become a distraction.

"It also feels like a good time for the one-day side to have a change of leadership. We are now starting a new four-year cycle.

"In some ways your energy levels are sapped when you captain the side. I want to play with a fresh mind and finish my career with some stats I think I'm worth."

Vice-captain Daniel Vettori is the man most likely to take over as skipper, having already led the team on 11 occasions in Fleming's absence.

"The way we've groomed Daniel Vettori for this tournament, he will certainly come into discussion, but there's going to be a lot of change within New Zealand cricket.

"I'm not sure what John's doing, the selectors are doing, so it's probably a bit presumptuous to recommend Daniel but he's done a fine job up to this point," Fleming added.