Tea B>West Indies 499 all out & 65 for no loss (Campbell 33*, King 31*) need 237 runs to beat Sri Lanka 549 for 9 dec & 251 for 9 dec (Chandimal 71, Kamindu 44, Dhananjaya 34, Alzarri 2-44)

There was surprise in some quarters at Sri Lanka's decision to not declare over the lunch break, but considering the relative ease with which John Campbell and Brandon King proceeded for the remainder of the session there was perhaps merit in padding the target beyond 300 - and in turn eating into roughly 25 minutes of play that would otherwise been afforded West Indies to chase.

Despite some variable bounce now around, Sri Lanka's seamers - and Prabath Jayasuriya - were unable to cause much discomfort to the West Indian openers, who seemed in no hurry to hunt down the target of 302 set by Sri Lanka, but had nevertheless still moved on to 65 after 23 overs.

With just a session of play left, this match is now hurtling towards a draw, which will see both sides share WTC points - though of more importance to the hosts, who are out of WTC final contention in this cycle, is a rare series victory.

There were just three overs bowled after the lunch break before Sri Lanka opted to declare, after a couple of lusty blows from Milan Rathnayake took the lead past the 300-mark.

In their chase, Campbell and King were scarcely troubled. There was belatedly some variable bounce on what has been a very good batting surface, but nothing that the West Indians had too much trouble navigating.

The closest Sri Lanka came to a breakthrough was when Jayasuriya had King trapped lbw after the right-hander missed a sweep, only for DRS to show the ball bouncing over the top of middle stump. An over later, Jayasuriya had King trapped in front of the stumps once again, but this time umpire Ahsan Raza was unmoved. King survived after it showed umpire's call on wickets hitting.

Earlier in the morning session, Sri Lanka did their best to get to position to safely put the West Indies into bat again, as they ticked along at 5.79 over across the the 24-over session. Six wickets were lost in their cause, but it was an enterprising period of play in the face of a defensive bowling effort from the hosts, whose seamers peppered lines wide of off allied with a stacked 7-2 offside and the spinners stuck to leg stump lines.

In this context, each of the wickets to fall were not in keeping with how the previous four days had transpired, as the hectic nature of Sri Lanka's approach reflected more the latter overs of a 50-over game than the final day of a two-match Test series. Of note for the visitors Dinesh Chandimal reached his 36th Test fifty, and his third on tour, but it will be of little consolation as this match now seems destined for a stalemate.