Defiance so nearly defined Zimbabwe's afternoon session, but Peter Moor holed out to long on with fewer than 15 minutes to tea, and put a dent in Zimbabwe's recovery. Yet, a recovery of sorts it remained. Craig Ervine, who grew more comfortable by the over after lunch, took the lead in holding Sri Lanka at bay, forging an 84-run stand with Sikandar Raza, then a 41-run partnership with Peter Moor, to end the session on 84 on 127 balls. Sri Lanka's spinners were routinely threatening, but came up against a more responsible batting effort in this session than they had in the first, but still, will hope to dimiss the opposition for not may more than 250. They were 213 for 6 at the break.

Ervine had struck just two boundaries off his first 61 deliveries, but became braver once he was established, even carving Dilruwan Perera behind point, then clubbing him over long on, in the space of three deliveries, to go to 49. His most-recent 53 runs came from 66 deliveries - the offside his favoured zone for boundaries. Rare was the loose ball that went unpunished by him in the latter half of the session. This half century was his fourth in Test cricket, and he now stands 16 runs short of his second Test ton.

For 19 overs, Raza had been provided apt support. He had begun his innings the same way he finished the ODI series: with a six over the straight boundary. The remainder of his innings was only a little more laidback. In his 36 off 47 balls was the busy running that Sri Lanka saw from him in the ODIs, as well as the calculated boundary hitting - his two fours both hit square on the legside. He was nailed by a Rangana Herath about halfway through the session, and made the further mistake of reviewing that out decision, as he had hit the ball as well. Replays showed the ball had struck pad first, however, and the decision was upheld.

Moor, in his 42-ball innings, was perhaps guilty of failing to rotate the strike against Herath, and strove to advance largely through boundaries, but often didn't quite connect well enough to beat the field. He hit one impressive six - a slog sweep off Herath, who had bowled him 11 dot balls in 13 previous deliveries. A few overs later, Moor was out trying to launch Asela Gunaratne over the straight boundary, managing only to find Lahiru Kumara, who ran in about 20 metres from the rope.

Zimbabwe's return of 117 for 2 in the middle session was a substantial improvement from their performance in the first session, in which they had lost four wickets for 96 runs. Herath had struck in his first and third overs to remove the openers, before Lahiru Kumara had Tarisai Musakanda nicking behind, and Sean Williams sent a top-edge to square leg off the bowling of Dilruwan Perera. The Khettarama track had already offered fast turn, on occasion, and all the early signs pointed to this becoming a spinners' Test.