Sri Lanka, who had a lead of 288 runs at stumps on the penultimate day, decided to extend it instead of going for an overnight declaration. Dhanajaya de Silva and Suranga Lakmal wasted no time and looked for quick runs.
Australia, meanwhile, wasted fair bit of time in the morning. Apart from the fact that two pacers - Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood - opened the attack, the former even asked for a fresh pair of shoes, less than overs into his spell. In the first 23 minutes of play, Australia bowled only 17 deliveries.
To make it worse, both the pacers were wayward with their line and length, offering freebies for the batsmen to comfortably stretch their lead. While De Silva punished anything that was short by unleashing the pull shot, Lakmal too handsomely drove a full-pitched delivery by Hazlewood straight down the ground to impress his teammates, who stood up in the dressing room and applauded the top-class shot.
Just 4.3 overs into the day, skipper Angelo Mathews decided to declare the Sri Lankan innings at 347 for 8, with the duo having added 35 runs in that period.
Set to chase 324 for a consolation win, with a minimum of 83 overs left in the day, Australia began their charge slowly, managing only nine runs off the first six overs. Warner kept his shots in check, much like Marsh who offered a more confident straight bat in defence.
With a couple of close-in fielders waiting for edges to pop out of his dead-bat defence, the Australian vice-captain soon decided to resort to his natural game. Once he started stepping out of his crease, he drove Rangana Herath through covers off the first ball of the seventh over and followed it up with a punch through the same region off the last. The couple of boundaries forced Mathews to remove the man stationed at silly point.
Marsh struggled in the middle - huffing and puffing his way through the 66-ball stay - and kept calling out for liquids after every two overs. Even as his struggle didn't show in the batting, he was time and again visibly disgusted with his shot selection.
Once Warner found his groove, he continued attacking the bowlers, albeit in a more calculated manner than his first innings show. By the time the duo went past the 50-run mark, the first instance in the series for an opening pair, the momentum had shifted in Australia's favour even as Sri Lanka looked in control.
The pressure showed up in the 18th over when Dilruwan Perera came over the wicket to Warner. The left-hander padded the first two deliveries, extending his front leg to the line of the ball. The third time he padded, the ball lobbed up and Mathews pouched it to his left in slips. The skipper was convinced that the batsman had gloved the delivery and took a review. However as replays showed, the ball was far from the bat as well as the gloves on the way to the fielder.
Sri Lanka lost their second review too, off the next ball, when Perera managed to hit Warner's pads. The on-field umpire gave the decision in favour of the batsman, but the bowler was convinced to ask his captain for another review. Yet again, with the ball pitching just about outside the leg-stump, the third umpire stuck with the original decision. In two balls, Sri Lanka had lost both their reviews, a decision Mathews may rue in the hindsight, given the close nature of the contest.
Sri Lanka's persistence eventually paid off when Marsh edged the ball to forward short leg, where Kusal Mendis took a superb reflex catch. The opener fell at the stroke of Lunch, with Australia needing 247 more runs to win.
Brief Scores: Sri Lanka 355 (Dinesh Chandimal 132, Dhananjaya de Silva 129; Mitchell Starc 5-63, Nathan Lyon 3-110) and 347 for 8 (Kaushal Silva 115; Dhananjaya de Silva 65*, Dinesh Chandimal 43; Nathan Lyon 4-123, Mitchell Starc 2-72, Jon Holland 2-72) lead Australia 379 (Shaun Marsh 130, Steve Smith, 119; Rangana Herath 6-81) and 77 for 1 (David Warner 44*) by 246 runs.
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