West Indies bowlers struck at regular intervals and did not allow Sri Lanka to get away on a rain-curtailed third day of the second Test between the sides.
Starting the third day, the onus was on the partnership between Dinesh Chandimal and Dhananjaya de Silva to take the tourists to a position of strength. However, Chandimal fell only in the fifth over the day.
Shannon Gabriel continued testing the backfoot technique and mindset of both batsmen with short balls, and ultimately Chandimal fell to a well-laid trap, hitting a ball straight to the square leg fielder.
De Silva was on course to score big runs and found an able partner in Pathum Nissanka, the centurion from the last game. The duo was kept quiet from the early spells of Gabriel and Kemar Roach.
After them, skipper Kraigg Brathwaite switched to Alazarri Joseph and the military-medium of Kyle Mayers, before replacing Joseph with Rakheem Cornwall.
Both Nissanka and de Silva enjoyed boundary scoring opportunities from the bowling pairs of Mayers and Cornwall and Sri Lanka appeared to be moving on from the fall of Chandimal.
Brathwaite was preserving his quicks for the rust with the new ball and hence Mayers’ spell was prolonged and for the last over before the second new ball, he offered the chance to Jermaine Blackwood to have a go at the batsmen.
Turned out, he created a magic moment for the hosts as de Silva fell to an innocuous off paining delivery. The batsman was in so much guilt that he gave himself out and opted out of the review, only for the replay to show that the ball was paining too much and would have ended up missing the stumps.
De Silva would be kicking himself for not reviewing as his wicket brought some bad weather with it and the play was halted for a brief period.
When the play resumed after a brief spell of rain, Brathwaite bafflingly opted to continue with Blackwood before finally going for the second new ball. The new ball did the trick as Holder brought one back to the left-handed Niroshan Dickwella and found him edging to the keeper on a review call.
Joseph got rid of Suranga Lakmal in one of the softest dismissals in cricket before the rain arrived again to play the spoilsport.
After another halting, Holder picked up yet another wicket of Dushmantha Chameera to put Lanka on the brink.
At the other end of the crease though, Nissanka was batting with the control and confidence he garnered after scoring his debut century in the last game. He was watchful against the new ball spells of Joseph and Holder to remain unbeaten at the stumps on the third day that could have gone Windies’ way had it not for the rain to rescue Sri Lanka.