England 358 (Smith 111, Brook 56, Asitha 4-102) and 82 for 3 need another 123 runs to beat Sri Lanka 236 and 326 (Kamindu 113, Chandimal 79, Potts 3-47)

By tea, Joe Root and Harry Brook had inched England along to 82 for 3 with a tentative stand of 12 in 6.3 overs, although Sri Lanka kept the pressure up, and had the substitute fielder Ramesh Mendis clung on to a diving chance at backward square off a firm sweep from Brook on 4, their hopes of breaking through to an elongated England tail would have been substantially boosted.

The fact that England were not already in deeper strife was thanks to a disciplined docking of Sri Lanka’s tail by England’s seamers, armed with the second new ball shortly after lunch. It meant that the innings ended much as it had begun, with Sri Lanka’s final four wickets falling in the space of 26 balls, including the final three for five in ten, but up until that point, the contest had been turned on its head by an outstanding seventh-wicket stand of 117 that spanned the entirety of the morning session.

Between Kamindu, who recorded his third hundred in the space of four Tests, and Chandimal, who was last man out for 79 despite having retired hurt on the third afternoon, Sri Lanka transformed their match prospects, and with scarcely a moment of alarm across their 30-over alliance.

Having let a promising position slip with the ball on the third morning, Sri Lanka’s focus was unwavering as the pair resumed on 204 for 6, with a slender lead of 82. They had more than doubled that advantage before Gus Atkinson prised out Kamindu for 113 shortly after lunch, to create an opening that Chris Woakes and Matthew Potts were primed to pile through.

That set the tone for a proactive half-hour, with Chandimal following his partner’s lead as he built on his overnight 20 not out. The fact that he was there at all was remarkable, given the gruesome blow to the thumb that Wood had inflicted on the third afternoon. He had retired hurt on 10, but after an X-ray had given him the all-clear, returned with no ill-effects, although he did later relinquish the wicketkeeping duties, with Kusal Mendis taking over behind the stumps.

Pope rang the changes for England, but none of them had any answer to a burgeoning stand. Kamindu came into this contest with an average in excess of 100 after two centuries and an unbeaten 92 in his three previous Tests, and the range of his strokeplay was apparent in back-to-back boundaries off Atkinson, driven and pulled respectively, plus a ruthless eye for anything loose from the spin of Bashir.

Neither a 30-minute rain delay in the second hour of the morning, nor a brief sighting of the new ball before the interval could disrupt Kamindu’s focus, as he rushed through to his third Test hundred with a decisive slash through deep third off Woakes, to send England into lunch with a real battle on their hands.

Their immediate prospects after the resumption didn’t look much better. Kamindu surged onto the offensive after the break with a trio of off-side boundaries as Atkinson struggled with his line, but after an intervention from Pope, he switched to round the wicket with instant success. Kamindu fenced at the new angle, shaping into his left-handed stance, and Root at first slip held on a sharp low chance.

Atkinson was immediately yanked from the attack, with Potts adding his second of the innings courtesy of a juggled take from Harry Brook at second slip, who parried Prabath Jayasuriya’s punch off the back foot, but recovered well to snaffle the rebound. Potts celebrated with a pat of his fluttering heart, having watched two key chances go down during his excellent but under-rewarded spell on day three.

Woakes added his third when Vishwa Fernando played down the wrong line to be struck in front of middle and leg, and though Chandimal attempted to cut loose with only Asitha Fernando for company, the substitute fielder Harry Singh stayed cool at deep cover to end a superbly gutsy innings.

England’s reply so nearly got off to a disastrous start when, on 2, Ben Duckett jabbed his third delivery down the leg-side, to be brilliantly caught by Kusal in his outstretched right glove. However, in an echo of Duckett’s reprieve against Mitchell Starc in last year’s Ashes, the decision was overturned because Kusal’s palm was pushing the ball into the ground as he completed the catch.

Asitha Fernando was the unlucky bowler, but he made amends in superb fashion in his third over, flipping the shiny side of his swinging new ball to graze a more regulation edge through to Kusal, as Duckett played for the inswinger that had done him in in the first innings.

Dan Lawrence, by this stage, had launched Jayasuriya for a wonderfully clean straight six, but in his unfamiliar role as opener, his frailties outside off were consistently probed, not least by Asitha, whose command of seam and swing once again made him the pick of Sri Lanka’s attack.

It was Jayasuriya who made the next breakthrough, however, as Pope – familiarly skittish at the start of his innings – climbed into a reverse-sweep on a deliberate leg-stump line, but managed only to toe-end a simple chance to Dhananjaya de Silva. And when Lawrence, on 34, was pinned lbw by a nip-backer soon afterwards, England had slipped to a dangerous scoreline of 70 for 3.