Dinesh Chandimal cracked an unbeaten 206, his highest Test score and maiden double ton, as Sri Lanka put themselves 190 runs ahead of Australia in the first innings.
Chandimal farmed the strike expertly with the tail en route which also saw Sri Lanka scale their highest ever total against Australia.
The hosts had built on their overnight lead steadily through the morning on the fourth day where Chandimal also added 68 with Ramesh Mendis for the seventh wicket that frustrated Australia for a large part.
Both Chandimal and Mendis were proactive in their approach to counter Nathan Lyon’s offspin. While the former brought out a string of sweep shots, the latter also put the spinner off by dancing down the track and lofting him. As a result, Australia had little to no success through the first hour and Sri Lanka stretched their lead swiftly.
With no luck going their way, Australia only managed to get back into the game when the third new ball was taken. Ramesh was yorked by Mitchell Starc and trapped plumb in front. This came in the middle of a flurry of opportunities for Australia. A couple of overs before, Mitchell Swepson had an LBW turned down, only for the replays to show three reds. With no review left, Australia were left ruing a missed chance when Starc nearly struck twice. After bagging Ramesh, he also had a caught behind appeal against Maheesh Theekshana upheld onfield but it was overturned on review.
With no luck going their way, Australia only managed to get back into the game when the third new ball was taken. Ramesh was yorked by Mitchell Starc and trapped plumb in front. This came in the middle of a flurry of opportunities for Australia. A couple of overs before, Mitchell Swepson had an LBW turned down, only for the replays to show three reds. With no review left, Australia were left ruing a missed chance when Starc nearly struck twice. After bagging Ramesh, he also had a caught behind appeal against Maheesh Theekshana upheld onfield but it was overturned on review.
In reply, Australia started confidently before David Warner was caught LBW minutes before the Tea interval.
Brief Scores: Australia 364 (Steve Smith 145*, Manus Labuschagne 104; Prabath Jayasuriya 6-118, Kasun Rajitha 2-70) and 52/1 trail Sri Lanka 554 (Dinesh Chandimal 205*, Dimuth Karunaratne 86; Mitchell Starc 4-98, Mitchell Swepson 2-100) by 138 runs
