Dinesh Chandimal marked his maiden outing with the bat as captain by scoring a half-century to help keep Sri Lanka in contention against Zimbabwe.
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
The tourists frustrated Sri Lanka on day one of the one-off Test in Colombo to reach 344 for 8, but could only add 12 runs on Saturday.
Centurion Craig Ervine was the last man to go on 160, finally falling to Lahiru Kumara to leave Chris Mpofu – who had only faced one ball – as the not-out batsman.
Chandimal, who replaced Angelo Mathews as skipper following his decision to stand down from the role in all formats after the shock ODI series loss to Zimbabwe, led by example with a solid 55 as the host closed on 293 for 7, 63 runs behind.
Upul Tharanga (71) – captain in the shorter formats – was the pick of the Sri Lanka batsmen, but he was cut short in his prime after being run out by Donald Tiripano at the non-striker's end.
Mathews added 41, with Asela Gunaratne (24 not out) and Rangana Herath (5 not out) the men left standing.
Herath had earlier claimed the scalp of Tiripano (24) to complete a five-wicket haul, moving him above Malcolm Marshall and Waqar Younis with 378 Test wickets.
Chandimal will now hope to see some lower-order resistance from his side as he seeks a winning start to his captaincy.
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