Sri Lanka responded to their first-innings collapse on day two of the first Test against New Zealand as they finished the day 84-0 in their second innings, but they still trail the Kiwis by 219 runs.
Angelo Mathews's side were skittled out for just 138 in the afternoon session, and needed a strong reply in their second as they faced an uphill task of scoring over 303 to make the hosts bat again.
Openers Dimuth Karunaratne and Kaushal Silva held off the initial onslaught from Trent Boult and Tim Southee with the new ball to avoid their disastrous start of the first innings.
The duo began to build steadily through the evening session with a defensive approach, but Karunaratne did display a keenness to punish the odd poor delivery from the home side's attack.
They brought up their 50 partnership off 135 balls and dropped anchor towards the end of the day to give Sri Lanka a glimmer of hope in the match, but they still trail the Kiwis' first-innings score of 441 by 219 runs at stumps on day two.
Simon Sinclair
