6 overs Zimbabwe 68-3 and 236 (Muralitharan 9-51) trail Sri Lanka 505 (Jayasuriya 139, Vaas 72*) by 201 runs
scorecard

Andy Flower and Gavin Rennie gritted it out for the final 10 overs of the day, but Zimbabwe still have a mountain to climb to save the second Test. In fading light they survived the wiles of Muralitharan and some rapid-fire bowling changes from Jayasuriya, and earned the right to resume tomorrow.

Zimbabwe had made a dreadful start to their second innings when Hamilton Masakadza was bowled first ball by a peachy inswinger from Vaas. Stuart Carlisle fell to the same bowler soon afterwards when his uppish flick was caught by a sprawling Atapattu at backward square-leg.

Muralitharan then confirmed his recovery from ligament damage by reeling off eight overs in a row and dismissing Trevor Gripper for 23. Gripper had been playing Murali quite well, harvesting boundaries with sweeps and pulls, but he lingered fatally on the back foot and was plumb lbw as the ball snaked viciously back at him.

Earlier in the day, Chaminda Vaas had notched 72 not out as Sri Lanka meandered to 505 all out, their sixth score of over 500 in seven Tests. Vaas added 111 untroubled runs with Charitha Fernando and only a late flurry of wickets denied him the chance of pushing for a maiden Test century.

Travis Friend (3 for 92) and Grant Flower (3 for 68) were the most successful of Zimbabwe's diligent bowlers, but Henry Olonga received another spanking to take his final analysis to an embarrassing 24 - 2- 131- 0. Olonga's day was improved slightly when his direct hit ran out Zoysa after tea.

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