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Chester-le-Street: A belated Sri Lanka fightback delayed England's victory push on the third day of the second Test.
Forced to follow on 397 behind after being bowled out for only 101, the tourists battled hard to reach 309-5 - trailing by 88 at Chester-le-Street.
Captain Angelo Mathews made a counter-attacking 80, Kaushal Silva 60 and Dinesh Chandimal an unbeaten 54.
James Anderson ended the day with two wickets and Chris Woakes, Steven Finn and Moeen Ali one apiece.
As well as Sri Lanka batted on an admittedly placid surface, a second successive innings victory for England - and a series triumph - remains the most likely outcome.
There is no rain forecast on Monday, the second new ball is only four overs old and Rangana Herath - boasting a Test average of 13 - is the next batsman in at number eight.
However, Mathews and his players deserve considerable credit for the manner in which they took the game into a fourth day given that their previous highest total in three attempts was 119.
Demonstrating the sort of application which had been sorely lacking this summer, Sri Lanka batted for 84 overs - more than they managed in the entire Headingley Test.
Opener Silva provided the bulk of the early resistance to an England attack that struggled to extract pace or sideways movement from an occasionally two-paced surface.
He was assisted by Dimuth Karunaratne and Kusal Mendis, both of whom made 26 before falling to edges off Woakes and Anderson respectively.
Compact in defence and driving especially well through the covers, Silva brought up a 111-ball half-century after the left-handed Lahiru Thirimanne was bowled by a beautiful delivery from Moeen Ali that turned past his forward prod to hit the top of off stump.
Brief scoes
England - 498 / 9 dec (Moeen 155*, Hales 83, Root 50, Pradeep 4-107)
Sri Lanka - 101 (Broad 4-40, Woakes 3-9, Anderson 3-36) and 309/5 (Mathews 80, Silva 60, Chandimal 54*)
Status - Sri Lanka trail by 88 runs
