Third test - day three (close)

Sri Lanka 240 & 53-4 trail England 336 & 230 by 273 runs

JACK Leach took one of four Sri Lankan wickets to fall in the evening session as England closed in on a 3-0 series whitewash in Colombo.

Chasing 327 to win, the hosts slumped to 53-4 by the close as Moeen Ali (2-16), Leach (1-12) and Ben Stokes (1-14) turned the screw.

Earlier in the day, a fine half-century by Jos Buttler helped England recover from 39-4 in their second innings to establish a lead which looks like being a match-winning one.

Buttler used his feet to good effect and manipulated the field well in his typically fluent 64 from 79 balls, sharing a valuable stand of 89 with Stokes (42) to lead the tourists out of trouble.

Ben Foakes chipped in with an unbeaten 36, though Leach was the last man out for a 13-ball duck as England were bowled out for 230.

The Somerset man did not open the bowling as he did in the first innings, but was quickly introduced and struck with just his third delivery.

A straight delivery struck Dananjaya on the pad and England successfully overturned the original not out decision on review to leave the hosts 24-3.

To make matters worse for Sri Lanka, the experienced Angelo Mathews then fell into a trap by taking on a Stokes bouncer and succeeding only in picking out Stuart Broad at deep square-leg.

England need six more wickets to wrap up victory on the final day, with Sri Lanka needing an unlikely 274 more runs.