Pathum Nissanka’s superb unbeaten fifty left Sri Lanka eyeing a memorable win over England as the third Test at the Oval headed for a dramatic finish. Sri Lanka were 94-1 when bad light brought an early close on Sunday’s third day, needing another 125 runs to reach a victory target of 219 that would end a run of seven consecutive Test defeats by England. Dimuth Karunaratne was caught and bowled by Chris Woakes for eight when a drive got out of hand. But his opening partner Nissanka, who made 64 in Sri Lanka’s first innings, was 53 not out having gone to his second fifty of the match in style when he fired debutant left-hander quick Josh Hull through the covers for a seventh four off 42 balls faced.
Meanwhile, recalled Kusal Mendis pounced on numerous loose deliveries during an unbeaten 30 with 24 runs in boundaries.
Sri Lanka's pursuit of a 200-plus goal target was largely down to Jamie Smith's superb counter-attacking 67-pointer that rescued England from a dramatic collapse.
England, already 2-0 up in this three-match series, lost five wickets for 26 runs and slumped to 82-7 before wicketkeeper Smith's display on his home ground in Surrey helped them recover to 156 all out.
His innings left England, who defeated the West Indies 3-0 earlier in the season, with renewed hopes of recording their first clean sweep at home since 2004, when Michael Vaughan led them to seven consecutive victories.
Smith fell at tea time when he chipped Vishwa Fernando to short midwicket to end a brilliant 50-ball innings with 10 fours and a six.
Left-handed quick Vishwa Fernando, putting on prodigious swing, also captured the scalp of prize-winning spinner Joe Root for just 12 on his way to 3-40, with Lahiru Kumara enjoying a fine return of 4-21 in seven overs.
Former England captains Michael Vaughan and Alastair Cook had criticised the hosts for their poor batting as they slumped to 325 for 221 in their first innings.
It is unlikely that any of the older batsmen would have been impressed with opener Ben Duckett, who made seven off Asitha Fernando.
Ollie Pope, fresh from scoring 154 in England's first innings (his first Test century since taking over as captain from the injured Ben Stokes) also fell by seven not out when he cut the ball off Kumara.
Dan Lawrence, a middle-order batsman by trade, had been promoted to open this series in place of the injured Zak Crawley.
The 27-year-old was yet to get 30 in four innings against Sri Lanka and it was a similar story on Sunday as he lifted Asitha Fernando for six.
However, Lawrence pushed his luck once again as he drove in Kumara only to go behind wicket-keeper Dinesh Chandimal for a 35 that ended up being England's second-highest score in the innings.
Root's driven square boundary off Vishwa Fernando meant he surpassed Sri Lanka great Kumar Sangakkara's total of 12,400 Test runs to move into sixth place on the all-time list.
However, two balls later, Vishwa Fernando's excellent yorker hit Root's boot and he was out of the game.
Brook was also LBW against another excellent inswinger from Vishwa Fernando.
Smith hit back, scoring 20 runs in an over off fast bowler Milan Rathnayake that included a darting cut for four and a thumping pull for six in successive deliveries.
He also knocked Rathnayake to the ground for four before ending the over by hitting the paceman through covers for another boundary.
Earlier, Olly Stone and 20-year-old quick Hull did most of the damage as Sri Lanka, who resumed play on 211-5, lost their last five first-innings wickets for 52 runs in 16.2 overs, with captain Dhananjaya de Silva and Kamindu Mendis unable to add significantly to their unbeaten overnight fifties.
Stone took 3-35 in nine overs and the imposing Hull took 3-53 in 11.
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