Internet Desk: A battling century from Kaushal Silva gave Sri Lanka a 288-run second innings lead on the fourth day of the third and final Test of the series against Australia at Sinhalese Sports Club in Colombo on Tuesday.
Sri Lanka, which is looking at a rare series whitewash after winning the first two Tests, was312 for 8 with only one day left in the game. Dhananjaya de Silva, who scored a century in the first innings, was unbeaten on 44 with Suranga Lakmal on naught at close of play.
The day belonged to Silva, who had six stitches on the webbing of the little finger of his left hand after injuring himself while fielding on Monday. Silva, 30, mixed dogged defence and controlled aggression, scoring 115 and putting together a crucial 90-run partnership with Dinesh Chandimal, also a first-innings century-maker, to fend the Australians off.
Nathan Lyon, who claimed four wickets, trapped Chandimal lbw for 43 in the final session to break the stand. Silva, who survived an lbw appeal against Lyon after a successful umpire review in the first session, finally fell to the left-arm spin of Jon Holland in the 87th over. Australia made further inroads late in the day, but de Silva ensured that Sri Lanka maintained the upper hand heading into day five.
Earlier in the day, Holland had Kusal Perera caught off a top-edge which took the pads and went into the gloves of Peter Nevill behind the stumps. Kusal Mendis hit a quickfire 18 off 14 balls with two sixes and a four, but his aggression was halted when he was trapped lbw by Mitchell Starc, who has taken two wickets in the innings so far.
Sri Lanka, which resumed on 22 for 1, quickly scored the two runs needed to erase the 24-run first-innings deficit, which came about because of centuries from Steven Smith and Shaun Marsh. Sri Lanka, which has not beaten Australia in a series for the first time since 1999, now has the chance to register its first series whitewash against a major team since gaining Test status in 1981.