Australian captain Karen Rolton will delay arthroscopic surgery on her left knee until after she has travelled to India for the ICC women's cricketer of the year awards next Thursday.

Rolton was again forced to watch from the sidelines while stand-in skipper Lisa Sthalekar led the Southern Stars to a convincing 85-run victory over New Zealand in the Rose Bowl series in Brisbane.

The win was their fourth victory in the five-match one-day international series.

Opening batter Leah Poulton (68 in 76 balls) again top-scored for the Australians who posted 9-252, their second highest one-day total against the White Ferns.

In reply, New Zealand crumbled to 167 all out with Shelley Nitschke grabbing 3-32 and Sarah Andrews 2-19.

Officials confirmed Rolton will also miss the fifth and final one-dayer on Saturday but will make the trip to Mumbai for the ICC awards ceremony where she is short-listed for the major gong alongside India's Anjum Chopra and England's Katherine Brunt.

She will then return to Adelaide for surgery on November 7 and is expected to be absent for up to eight weeks meaning she will miss the first three rounds of the domestic program.

In Rolton's absence, Sthalekar has skippered the Australians to two wins from two and retained the Rose Bowl trophy.

The 27-year-old said afterwards despite posting the highest total of the series she was still looking for the side to build bigger partnerships and really push home their advantage in the final stages.

But she had few complaints with the bowling attack, shooting out the Kiwis for a paltry 167.

"I still think we could have scored maybe another 20-odd runs," Sthalekar said. "We don't seem to be finding the boundary in the last 10 because we keep losing wickets.

"But bowling-wise I was really happy. It was probably our best start.

"We definitely bowled where our plans were and brought the field into play and were able to pick up the wickets."

Their New Zealand counterparts were less impressive in a wayward display.

Nicola Browne, who has struggled with her bowling rhythm the entire series, remained unused after bowling a 12-ball third over which included five wides and a head-high no-ball.

Meanwhile, the usually economical off-spin of Aimee Mason went for 64 runs in just eight overs.

Browne's problems were later compounded in the 31st over of New Zealand's reply when she tripped attempting a quick single and had to be rushed to hospital after smashing her mouth on the handle of the bat.

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