Amir Jangoo's double ton, Roston Chase's 194 put WI on top

Amir Jangoo scored a fabulous double century while captain Roston Chase fell agonisingly short of one himself on a third day when West Indies buried Sri Lanka under a mountain of runs. The West Indies pair added a mammoth 401 runs for the sixth wicket – the second-highest for West Indies for any wicket in Tests, behind only the 446-run stand between Garry Sobers and Conrad Hunte against Pakistan at Kingston in 1958. It is also the best-ever for the sixth wicket or lower in Test history, beating Ben Stokes and Jonny Bairstow's 399 against South Africa at Cape Town in 2016.

The partnership put West Indies in an extraordinary position of strength. They declared the innings at the fag end of the day at 626/9 to give their bowlers a few overs against the Sri Lankan top-order in fading light. The move worked wonders as Sri Lanka lost Pathum Nissanka – to Jayden Seales – and limped to 15/1 at stumps.

Jangoo continued to grow from strength to strength after a show of defiance on Day 2, pushing on well on Day 3 to first get to a hundred and then scale a bigger personal mountain. Incredibly, he did it in just his third Test innings. Chase too took the opportunity of bettering his sinking average in the format to get close to a dream double ton, only to be cleaned up by Sonal Dinusha for an exceptional 194.

Just between them, the pair kept Sri Lanka on the field for 100.2 overs across Day 2 and 3. They started out on Saturday at 271/5, still trailing Sri Lanka's first-innings total of 308 by 37 runs. It took them a little more than an hour to go past that and then consolidate further. Jangoo got to a century soon as West Indies went to Lunch with a lead of close to 50 runs. Sri Lanka then chased shadows in search of a breakthrough as the sixth wicket pair added another 136 runs in the middle session. In the first hour of the final session, Jangoo brought up his maiden Test double century. But leading into the drinks break, Milan Rathnayake dismissed him. On the other side of the break, West Indies lost Alzarri Joseph to go seven down.

Chase's pursuit of his double ton after that didn't come through as he was sent back for 194. Kemar Roach then fell for a duck and Chase opted to declare with a big lead of 321 runs. Seales then gave him one last high of the day with the dismissal of Nissanka, which now leaves Sri Lanka with a big uphill battle in the next two days.

Brief Scores: Sri Lanka 308 (Dhananjaya de Silva 120, Dinesh Chandimal 54; Justin Greaves 3-39) & 15/1 trail West Indies 626/9 decl. (Amir Jangoo 233, Roston Chase 194; Milan Rathnayake 5-124) by 303 runs