Adam Gilchrist felt Australia could have made coach John Buchanan's "wild" 400-run dreams come true if allowed to go the full distance in Tuesday's one-day cakewalk of New Zealand at the Basin Reserve.

The world champions notched a fourth-straight win over the depleted Black Caps with amazing ease on a chilly Wellington day by hunting down their target of 234 in only the 35th over.

Stand-in skipper Gilchrist led the carnage by belting 54 off 37 balls for his first half-century in 10 matches to be man of the match.

He signalled a return to his swashbuckling best by plonking a Jeff Wilson delivery onto the roof of the CS Dempster Gate, before it bounced onto nearby Cambridge Terrace.

Simon Katich (43 off 41), Damien Martyn (65 not out off 79) and Andrew Symonds (48 off 37) all followed suit as they failed to give a bruised and battered home attack an ounce of respect.

Gilchrist said one-day cricket's Everest-like 400-barrier was there for the taking if Australia had been allowed to bat its full 50 overs.

"Another 15-16 overs were left so who knows where it could have finished but that's just guessing," he said.

"We knew the total we needed and we could play with a bit more freedom once Kato got us going. And then I managed to get a few away."

The record high score in a one-day innings is 5-398 by Sri Lanka against non-Test nation Kenya in the 1996 World Cup at Kandy.

Australia's high watermark is 2-359 in the 2003 World Cup final against India in South Africa and Buchanan is hungry to see the barrier broken.

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