Pakistan-Sri Lanka: Pakistan 291-6 at stump, day 3, 3rd Test

But Sri Lanka's premier batsman Kumar Sangakkara was quick to defend Herath.

“A lot of batsmen do not have the patience anyways when you bowl those kind of lines,” Sangakkara said. “The plan was quite positive to try and get them to hit against the line.”

Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews also frustrated the openers with some intelligent field placings and didn't allow them to rotate strike too often with five fielders inside the 15 meters on the legside.

Pakistan needed a significant increase in the run rate to take the win that would square the series, but Manzoor and Shehzad were tied down after the break as they took almost three hours to reach their fifties, with 84 further runs gained in the second session.

Shehzad reached his half century off 150 balls with five fours and Manzoor soon followed him to complete his seventh test fifty off 120 balls with four boundaries.

Eranga finally got the breakthrough when Manzoor, who faced 125 balls with four boundaries, tried to flick him down the legside and Ali perished soon afterwards as Perera lured him to drive off a well flighted delivery and found the outside edge to Mathews.