An unbeaten half-century from Kane Williamson has carried New Zealand to within sight of victory against Sri Lanka in a topsy-turvy second cricket Test in Hamilton.
The Black Caps, chasing 189, head into day four needing 47 more runs with five wickets in hand to complete a 2-0 series win.
New Zealand were 142-5 at stumps at Seddon Park on Sunday, with Williamson on 78, having produced some typically stylish strokes despite hobbling at times.
In all, 16 wickets fell on Sunday as both attacks profited from pursuing a short-ball strategy.
Black Caps seamer Neil Wagner admitted it was "a bizarre day".
Sri Lanka had wasted little time in taking the one wicket they needed to wrap up the New Zealand first innings at 237 and hold a 55-run lead.
They then appeared to be building a challenging target as openers Dimuth Karunaratne and Kusal Mendis put on 71.
But Karunaratne's dismissal for 27 precipitated a spectacular collapse as the tourists slumped to 133 all out.
Wagner said the Black Caps realised they had to try something different as the Karunaratne-Mendis partnership was looking comfortable.
"It wasn't really swinging and it looked quite flat so we had to find ways of getting 10 wickets and be aggressive," he said.
"At the end of the day, whichever plan you have, you have to execute for a long period of time and I thought the bowlers did a very good job of that."
Batsman being dismissed while hooking or pulling has been a feature of the Test and it was again the case in Sri Lanka's second innings.
Bowling coach Champaka Ramanayake, while praising the effort of his bowlers, agreed there was disappointment over some of the shots that were played.
He said there was a bit of uneven bounce in the pitch, but if batsmen applied themselves, they would get runs.
"We wanted to bat three sessions," he said.
"You see what Kane is doing at the moment, someone who is hanging around and leaving the bouncers a bit."
He said his batsmen were guilty of "trying to go for the big ones and it didn't really work for us."
Apart from Karunaratne, only Mendis (46) and Milinda Siriwardana (26) reached double figures.
As in the first innings, Tim Southee finished the best of the New Zealand bowlers with 4-26.
That took his career wicket tally to 163 and moved him into fifth place above Danny Morrison on the list of New Zealand Test bowlers.
Wagner chimed in with 3-40.
New Zealand made a stuttering start to their chase, losing openers Tom Latham and Martin Guptill cheaply to be 11-2.
Williamson put then on half-century stands with Ross Taylor (35) and Brendon McCullum (18), who were both also out to aggressive shots.
Pace bowler Dushmantha Chameera, in his fourth Test, took all four wicket to fall at that stage, to go with his maiden bag of five in the first innings.
Sri Lanka had one further success late on, Suranga Lakmal dismissing Mitchell Santner for four to give them, Ramanayake said, "a slight chance".
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