Resuming on day four with a lead of 196 and four wickets in hand, the hosts pushed that advantage to 267 before they were dismissed for 353 after lunch at the Pallekele Stadium.

The tourists face a rugged challenge to win, for history has shown they have only once in 13 attempts successfully chased more than 200 on the sub-continent, that being against Bangladesh in Dhaka in 2006.

That challenge only grew before bad light forced another delay, this time on the cusp of tea, with Australia 3-83, needing another 185 to win. Play was abandoned for the day more than an hour later, meaning three full sessions after tea have been lost this week because of rain and/or bad light, with only a burst of play on Thursday.

That the Sri Lankan Cricket Board has refused to allow the floodlights to be used has only added to the frustration. Cricket Australia, as is its policy at home, was keen for the lights to be used.

Australia will resume on Saturday with Skipper Steve Smith unbeaten on 26 and Adam Voges, having survived another lbw review before he had scored, nine not out.

A draw also remains a possibility, particularly if forecast showers - not to mention bad light - eventuate.

Australia's chase began miserably when David Warner stepped down the wicket to left-arm spinner Rangana Herath and was bowled, having played over the top of the delivery.

It completed a frustrating match for the Australian vice-captain, who was dismissed for a duck in the first innings, having only recently proven he had recovered from a broken finger. His spell on the sidelines has clearly impacted his timing.

Warner's combined return of one run was the worst performance by an Australian opener since Mark Taylor made a pair on his captaincy debut against Pakistan in Karachi in 1994.

When Usman Khawaja also fell cheaply, lbw for the second time this match, Australia was 2-33.

Khawaja had appeared at ease in his brief stay but that changed when he opted to sweep a fullish delivery from off-spinner Dilruwan Perera. Where he could have come forward and defended, he chose the more attacking option, but mistimed the stroke and was hit on the back leg. He will need to adjust ahead of the second Test in Galle.

It was also a case of groundhog day for Joe Burns, who again was bowled. He, too, had been compact, and had even stepped down the pitch and clipped a straight six off Herath.  But his frailties against slow bowling, representative of Australia's batting to that point, was exposed when Lakshan Sandakan, the left-arm wrist-spinning hero with the ball earlier in the match, delivered a ripping leg-spinner. Burns had shaped to cut, only for the delivery to turn viciously, leading to him playing on to his stumps.

Kusal Mendis, the star of Thursday, began the day unbeaten on 169 but he had managed only seven more runs when he prodded at a wide delivery from intimidating paceman Mitch Starc and feathered an edge to gloveman Peter Nevill.

Australia had wanted to take the second new ball late on Thursday but was denied this when Mendis and Perera accepted an offer from the umpires to leave because of poor light.

The tourists have been destructive with the new ball through this match, and so it proved when Mendis' fine knock came to an end - but not before he had posted the highest Test score on this ground.

It was also the second-highest knock by a Sri Lankan against Australia, falling just short of Kumar Sangakkara's 192 in Hobart almost nine years ago.

The son of a three-wheeler driver in Colombo, and with only one first-class ton to his name before this match, Mendis appears set to be a long-term plank of Sri Lanka's rebuild.

Mendis was hailed on Friday as the next-generation Mahela Jayawardene, the former champion Sri Lankan captain, by another local great, Aravinda de Silva.

Jayawardene, for his part, had said on social media that the hosts needed to add 75 more runs to their overnight score "to win this Test". They would add 71.

Having torpedoed Sri Lanka for 117 on the opening day, a loss here would be a major psychological blow for the Australians, who had enjoyed an extended warm-up for this series.

Their own poor first-innings let the hosts back into the game, and they capitalised. With a spin-friendly wicket awaiting next week at Galle, followed by what typically is a flat deck in Colombo, Australia face a major fight to improve their recent poor record on the sub-continent.

It was a delayed start to the day because of the threat of rain and, when play finally began, it lasted only 50 minutes before rain fell.

Australia's frustration had been exacerbated when what looked to be their second wicket of the day - when umpire Richard Kettleborough upheld Josh Hazlewood's lbw appeal against Herath - was overturned. The Sri Lankan had called for a review, and rightfully so for this found the delivery had pitched outside leg and might have cleared the top of the stumps.

Once the clouds dispersed, Hazlewood was again in the action when he had Perera playing across the line, and trapped lbw. He, too, reviewed but this time replays showed the delivery would have clipped leg stump.

Starc remained a menacing threat, and Sandakan had no intention of getting his body behind any rising delivery.

He swiped two boundaries before he was dismissed in comical fashion, having backed away to leg, only for Starc to follow him, and the ball to rebound and trickle onto his stumps.

Bowling coach coach Allan Donald said pre-match Starc was the world's best quick. The left-armer's efforts, certainly with the new ball, endorsed this claim.

Sri Lanka's fightback ended when Herath was brilliantly caught by substitute fieldsman Moises Henriques off Hazlewood. Herath had thumped six boundaries, providing crucial runs and extending Australia's agony.