Sri Lanka moved towards a big win in Galle on Day II, with Dinesh Chandimal and Sadeera Samarawickrama hitting unbeaten centuries, before Prabath Jayasuriya claimed five wickets in the 19 overs he delivered before stumps.

At stumps, Ireland were 117/7, still 474 runs behind, with three first innings wickets in hand. The pitch has begun to take significant turn too and Ireland will likely need to battle hard on Tuesday to avoid a defeat inside three days. Sri Lanka declared their first innings on 591/6 declared.

Jayasuriya collected five wickets for 42 runs after Vishwa Fernando had removed two Ireland batters in the second over of the innings. Jayasuriya generated drift and dip, as well as biting turn on occasion.

Harry Tector, who had put on a 70-run stand with James McCollum for the third wicket, was Jayasuriya’s first victim. The bowler drew Tector into a drive by looping it up, but collected his outside edge with dip and spin, the ball eventually finding its way to slip.

Two balls later, he would get the tetchy Curtis Campher pushing one gently to cover.

He would later get Peter Moor caught behind, and George Dockrell lbw, but Jayasuriya’s best dismissal was his third, and would have been fatal to many more experienced batters than McCollum.

This was a tossed up ball, drifting in, drawing the batter into a forward defence, before beating the outside edge by a whisker, then clipping the top of off stump. They went to stumps with wicketkeeper-batter Lorcan Tucker, and Andy McBrine at the crease.

Ireland had started the day nicely, with Campher dismissing nightwatchman Jayasuriya in the second over of the morning, before McBrine trapped Dhananjaya de Silva in front not long after.

Samarawickrama and Chandimal then put on an unbeaten 183 runs together. Samarawickrama got his maiden Test century, in his first Test in more than five years, as he preyed on the short lengths that Ireland continued to feed him. Chandimal’s century was the 14th of his career.

“There was no threat in the pitch and we wanted to bat only once and put the opposition under pressure,” Samarawickrama said later. “We have declared at the right time because as the pitch got older it started to spin.”

Brief scores: Sri Lanka 591/6 decl (D. Chandimal 102 n.o., S. Samarawickrama 104 n.o.; C. Campher 2/84) Ireland 117/7 (J. McCollom 35; P. Jayasuriya 5/42). At stumps, Day II

Written with inputs from AP/PTI