Sri Lanka staring at the follow-on

Sri Lanka are staring at their second follow-on of this short series after two lethal sessions from Australia's hungry bowlers. As in Brisbane, they continued to apply to the squeeze, leaving Mahela Jayawardene and the tail the task of adding another 135 with only two wickets left to avoid batting again should Ricky Ponting so wish them to.

Jayawardene headed to the break unbeaten on 69, but barring his third-wicket stand of 73 with the returning Kumar Sangakkara who made a fifty of his own, Sri Lanka have so far failed to put together a meaningful partnership and they only have three wickets left. Then again, in the face of some excellent bowling, they just haven't been allowed to.

Unsurprisingly for an attack which has been hunting as a pack, the bowlers shared the wickets around, with Brett Lee taking three, including the first two Stuart MacGill grabbed a pair and there was one each for Mitchell Johnson and Stuart Clark. A calamitous mix-up with the runner to run out Farveez Maharoof added to Sri Lanka's woes.

Lee continued to grow into his new role as pack leader, his aggressive offerings setting the tone. He set up the morning by knocking over Michael Vandort's middle stump with a perfectly pitched yorker and then finding Marvan Atapattu's edge where Michael Clarke clung on to a hard chance at gully on a twirling second attempt.

He could have also had Sangakkara twice, with Michael Hussey just not getting his hands under it at gully on 4 and Adam Gilchrist dropping a thick edge on 13. The batsman rode his luck before finally falling for to Johnson, who he had already inside-edged off, Hussey making no mistake this time at backward point.

Sangakkara's return was what Sri Lanka were clinging to. He had faced only three balls in the middle all tour before being parachuted into Hobart and he found he had landed on a rollercoaster, with plenty of false strokes first up before becoming more comfortable. While the ride was smoothing out and he was doing well with Jayawardene, Sri Lanka had some hope. But Australia were unrepentant.