SRI Lanka marched on to extend their lead to 323 at the end of the third day’s play of the second Test, at the Galle International Stadium.

The hosts stuttered their way in the second innings, after bundling out Pakistan earlier yesterday for 231, and went to stumps on 176 for 5 in a bad-light shortened day’s play.

Resuming the day on 191 for 7, Yasir Shah and Hasan Ali kept the Sri Lankan bowlers at bay for an hour with a defiant 30-run stand for the eighth wicket. Barring the odd occasions when Hasan Ali took to wild swipes against the spinners, they largely resorted to a dead bat approach.

While one of the swipes helped Hasan Ali get a six off Prabath Jayasuriya, another one ended his innings as he inside-edged the ball on to his stumps.

Brief scores: Sri Lanka 378 (Dinesh Chandimal 80, Niroshan Dickwella 51; Naseem Shah 3-58, Yasir Shah 3-83) & 176-5 (Angelo Mathews 35, Dhananjaya de Silva 30*; Naseem Shah 2-29) lead Pakistan 231 (Agha Salman 62, Imam ul Haq 32; Ramesh Mendis 5-47, Prabath Jayasuriya 3-80) by 323 runs.

Yasir, however, continued to keep the Sri Lankan bowlers on the field for more than 30 minutes thereafter, in the company of No 10 and 11, but could add only 10 before becoming Ramesh Mendis’s fifth victim of the innings. The off-spinner, who earlier had Nauman Ali caught behind, ended Yasir’s 97-ball stay with an off-break that hit his pads and had him adjudged leg-before.

With Dimuth Karunaratne out of the field for most of Pakistan’s innings, Sri Lanka had to promote Niroshan Dickwella to open alongside Oshada Fernando. The duo were on the offensive right from the start and Dickwella’s breezy innings was cut short when he slashed at a delivery from Naseem Shah angling away, only to get an edge to the keeper.

Despite his early dismissal Sri Lanka’s approach didn’t change, and as a result, the hosts kept losing wickets at regular intervals. Oshada was trapped leg-before by a Yasir slider on 19 and Kusal Mendis fell similarly to Mohammad Nawaz while attempting to sweep a full pitched delivery.

Angelo Mathews and Dinesh Chandimal brought in a sense of calm with their more assured approach, tackling the Pakistani bowlers expertly on a turning but predictable surface. Mathews did take on the spinners briefly – cutting and pulling Yasir for fours and then going down the track to Nawaz and tonking him for a six.

The duo was looking good to take Sri Lanka safely to tea when a flattish delivery from Agha Salman caught the outside edge of Mathews’ bat and lobbed to Babar Azam at slip from the wicketkeeper’s gloves.

Chandimal didn’t help matters much, as soon after tea, as he went for an expansive drive off Naseem, only to edge the ball to the wicketkeeper. Reduced to 117 for 5, Sri Lanka had found themselves in a tricky position despite a sizeable lead.

However, Karunaratne, who walked out to bat at No 6, steadied the ship in the company of Dhananjaya de Silva. Despite eliminating the risky shots, they were quick to latch in on the scoring opportunities. For a brief period of four overs, they scored 32 runs, stroking Yasir, Babar and Agha Salman: sometimes too short, sometimes wide down the legside.

And if the bowling errors weren’t costly enough, Karunaratne even brought out the reverse sweep to add to he boundary tally.

The duo stitched an unbeaten 59-run stand before bad light brought a premature end to the third day’s play. (Cricbuzz)

SRI LANKA 1st innings 378.
PAKISTAN 1st innings o/n 191-7
Abdullah Shafique b Asitha Fernando 0
Imam ul-Haq b Dhananjaya de Silva 32
Babar Azam b Prabath Jayasuriya 16
Mohammad Rizwan lbw Ramesh Mendis 24
Fawad Alam lbw Ramesh Mendis 24
Agha Salman c Dhananjaya de Silva b Prabath Jayasuriya 62
Mohammad Nawaz c Niroshan Dickwella b Ramesh Mendis 12
Yasir Shah lbw Ramesh Mendis 26
Hasan Ali b Prabath Jayasuriya 21
Nauman Ali c Niroshan Dickwella b Ramesh Mendis 1
Naseem Shah not out 4
Extras: (b-8, lb-1) 9
Total: (all out, 88.1 overs) 231
Fall of Wickets : 1-0 Shafique, 2-35 Azam, 3-65 ul-Haq, 4-88 Rizwan, 5-119 Alam, 6-145 Nawaz, 7-191 Salman, 8-223 Ali, 9-226 Ali.
Bowling: Asitha Fernando 20-2-62-1, Prabath Jayasuriya 37-10-80-3, Ramesh Mendis 21.1-6-47-5, Dhananjaya de Silva 4-0-15-1.

SRI LANKA 2nd innings
Niroshan Dickwella c Mohammad Rizwan b Naseem Shah 15
Oshada Fernando lbw Yasir Shah 19
Kusal Mendis lbw Mohammad Nawaz 15
Angelo Mathews c Babar Azam b Agha Salman 35
Dinesh Chandimal c Mohammad Rizwan b Naseem Shah 21
Dimuth Karunaratne not out 27
Dhananjaya de Silva not out 30
Extras: (b-9, lb-2, nb-2, w-1) 14
Total: (five wkts, 0.0 overs) 176
Fall of wickets: 1-27, 2-47, 3-59, 4-100, 5-117.
Bowling: Hasan Ali 5-0-24-0 (w-1), Naseem Shah 9-1-29-2 (nb-1), Yasir Shah 12-2-41-1, Mohammad Nawaz 11-2-32- 1,
Agha Salman 7-1-18-1 (nb-1).