Dimuth Karunarate top-scored with 44 from 92 balls before he became the first wicket to fall, leg before to Scott Boland, who finished with 2-37 from 16 overs.Chris Tremain collected 1-32, his wicket a nonchalant caught-and-bowled effort plucked with his left hand, and could have had a second when he had Roshen Silva edging only for it to fall narrowly short of Renshaw, who dove forward from first slip.

Boland's breakthrough came after he had switched to around the wicket with a short-leg in play and two men out on the hook the over before drinks, peppering the Sri Lankan with short-pitched balls. But when he went full after the break, Karunaratne found himself caught on the crease.

There was some good news for Sri Lanka earlier in the day when x-rays at a local hospital confirmed there was no break in the finger for middle-order batsman Kusal Mendis, however he did not bat in the Sri Lankans’ first innings.

Openers Joe Burns and Matthew Renshaw will link up with Australia's Test squad without a decent score under their belts after both suffered their second cheap dismissals for the Cricket Australia XI..

While the openers failed, Marnus Labuschagne, who had earlier taken 2-27 with his leg-spin, was assured with the bat at first drop, as he reached 33 from 62 balls when rain brought an early end to play with the Cricket Australia XI on 2-99 and 239 runs ahead.

First-innings centurion Kurtis Patterson continued his run-scoring spree to reach 30 from 48 balls by stumps and again looked more comfortable at the crease than any other batter in this match.

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