New Zealand had 177 runs lead with three wickets in hand when bad light stopped the play on the third day of the first test match between Sri Lanka and New Zealand in Galle.
Kiwis were 195/7 in their second inning with Bradley-John Watling unbeaten on 63 and William Somerville on 5.
Left arm spinner lasith Ambuldeniya made the lives of New Zealand batsmen difficult calming three wickets for 55 when the play stopped for tea
Dhananjaya De Silva took the first break through before Lunch in the second inning of New Zealand with 18 runs behind Sri Lanka. The victim was Jeet Raval .
By lunch on day three, the scores were level. However, soon after the break Embuldeniya trapped both Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor in successive overs to put Sri Lanka in front.
New Zealand were 25 for 3 at this point, but Tom Latham and Henry Nicholls then put on 56 for the fourth wicket in 11.2 overs to give the New Zealand innings a breather.
Tom Latham got out for 45 when Dhanajaya Silva Struck for the second time and followed by Henry Nicholls(26) and Mitchell Santner (12) to put New Zealand in deep trouble. De Silva and Embuldeniya were responsible in those two dismissals.
Bradley-John Watling and Tim Southee added 54 runs for the seventh wicket in the recovery mission to keep the New Zealand hopes of survival alive. But Embuldeniya removed Southee for 23 as his fourth wicket after a quick work out by Niroshan Dickwella behind the stumps.
Sri Lanka resumed their first inning 227 for 7 and added only 40 runs to the total runs and Trent Boult and Will Somerville saw them finishing the inning an hour before lunch.
Niroshan Dickwella proved his worth to the Test side with 61 runs and Sri Lanka able to have a a narrow lead of 18 runs from the visitors.
Left-arm spinner Ajaz Patel became the first New Zealander to claim a five-wicket haul in Galle and Suranga Lakmal s contributions were welcomed as well as Sri Lanka know that chasing anything above 150 on this track is dicey.
Resuming from the overnight score of 203 for five, New Zealand were knocked out for 249 losing their last five wickets for 46 runs.
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