Martyn grinds out a ton on a wet day

Australia 120 and 320 for 5 (Martyn 104*) lead Sri Lanka 211 by 229 runs
Scorecard

Damien Martyn batted studiously throughout the first half of the third day to keep Australia in front in the second Test at Kandy. Australia lost two wickets in the morning - including Adam Gilchrist's for 144 - and another after lunch, but Martyn ensured that the innings didn't fall away with his seventh Test century, an epic of patience and concentration. Australia reached 320 for 5 before torrential rain washed out play for the day.

Australia's lead - already a sizable 229 considering that Sri Lanka have only successfully chased over 200 on two previous occasions in their history - is not yet large enough to guarantee the series on a pitch that has grown increasingly placid but Sri Lanka, who have indicated that they would be satisfied chasing 300, are fast running out of time.

Martyn's marathon 104 not out spanned nearly seven hours and 273 balls. He rode his luck - he was dropped on 0 and 65 - and battled hard for his runs, content to play the anchor role as his colleagues scored more freely. It was his second consecutive hundred of the series and provided further justification for Australia's selectors' reluctance to dump him during his century-less 25-month spell.

Australia started the morning cautiously, wary of the pitch after torrential rain last evening. The surface remained dry, though, and there was little assistance for Sri Lanka's bowlers. Nevertheless, Martyn, on 65, was missed for the second time in the innings by Mahela Jayawardene, who failed to latch on to a ball that came low to his right.

Martyn soldiered on, almost entirely in defensive mode. But Muttiah Muralitharan provided the breakthrough that Sri Lanka needed, as Adam Gilchrist missed a ball that straightened, and was adjudged lbw. Gilchrist had scored 144 from 185 balls and hit 19 fours and three sixes, a fine return to form after a wretched start to the series that included two consecutive ducks (226 for 3). Gilchrist's wicket ended a 200-run stand for the third wicket, a record for Australia against Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka pressed for another wicket, but Darren Lehmann was once again in an aggressive mood, cracking four fours in his 36-ball 21. But Hashan Tillakaratne's first bowling change of the morning did the trick, as Chaminda Vaas, operating off a short run with a 70-over old ball, found sufficient movement to beat Lehmann's bat and trap him in front (255 for 4).

Ricky Ponting (29) came out to bat at No. 6 after intensive treatment on his strained upper back. He did not appear to be inconvenienced by the injury, though, as he danced down the track to Muralitharan and launched into a lofted drive over the corrugated iron-roofed stands at long-on.

Sri Lanka took the new ball in the 88th over of the innings, about 10 minutes before the lunch break. The harder ball did the trick too, although somewhat fortuitously as Dave Orchard, the umpire, detected a thin Ponting edge when television replays indicated that Vaas's delivery had just brushed his midriff (304 for 5).

Sri Lanka pressed for another wicket to expose Australia's tail but Andrew Symonds, playing and missing frequently against the seamers, hung on for close to an hour for his six runs as Martyn inched towards his century. Martyn eventually reached his hundred with a thick edge, before play was suspended, first for bad light and then for heavy rain.

Play will resume at 10am on Friday.