Sri Lanka are resisting the Black Caps' charge towards a Test series levelling victory, reaching Tea on day five in Colombo at 88/7, trailing by 99 runs in their second innings.
Resuming after lunch at 33/5, Sri Lankan pair of Niroshan Dickwella and captain Dimuth Karunaratne dug in to start the afternoon session, adding 41 for the sixth wicket, but more importantly eating up over 20 overs.
A misjudgement from Karunaratne, padding up to a Tim Southee delivery from around the wicket, saw the skipper on his way for 21, leaving the Black Caps four wickets from levelling the series. The dismissal was Southee's 250th Test wicket, coming in the same match as new ball partner Trent Boult.
New batsman Dilruwan Perera surviving a close LBW shout on zero, hit on the toe by Boult, the ball pitching outside leg stump being the batsman's saving grace.
Perera's luck wouldn't last much longer though, edging Southee behind to Ross Taylor, out for a duck with his side still needing over 100 runs to even make the Black Caps bat again.
From there though, the Sri Lankan pair of Dickwella and Suranga Lakmal would bat through the rest of the session, adding 13 runs in 7.2 overs, leaving the Black Caps with the task of taking the final three wickets in the last session of the final day of the series.
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