England had made inroads into the Sri Lankan middle order through some brilliant fielding by Ben Stokes before lunch but Silva frustrated the opposition bowlers for the rest of the day. Dimuth Karunaratne, who made 63, put on 96 for the third wicket with Dhananjaya de Silva, who hit 59, to steady the innings after they had slipped to 31 for two early in the day. But Stokes, who on Wednesday had failed with the bat as England's new number three, broke the partnership when he pounced to run out Karunaratne with a direct throw from gully. The star all-rounder then took a stunning one-handed catch low to his left at first slip to dismiss Kusal Mendis for one off the slow left-arm spin of Leach. "We got a 46 runs lead, its a huge score for us when they play in the second innings. We can put them under pressure if we can get a couple of wickets early morning," said Karunaratne.

"If we can get England before 250 it will be a gettable target for us," he added. England's first innings total was 285 but Sri Lanka were docked five runs after the umpires deemed that Silva did not ground his bat properly while taking a run. According to international cricket rules an umpire can dock five runs if he feels the batsman ran a short run deliberately. "I don't think Roshen did it deliberately. He thought the ball had gone for four he came back to his partner to give a high five," said Karunaratne. "Those things can happen its part of the game we don't blame him. We are not so worried about the five runs."

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