Centuries by Sanath Jayasuriya and captain Marvan Atapattu powered Sri Lanka to a 257-run lead against Zimbabwe on the second day of the first cricket test on Friday.
The pair's speedy opening stand of 281 set up Sri Lanka's 456 for seven at stumps, in reply to Zimbabwe's first-innings 199 at Harare Sports Club.
Jayasuriya breezed to 157 and Atapattu made a lucky 170, but Zimbabwe took five wickets after tea to snap the tourists out of any complacency.
Jayasuriya and Atapattu resumed at 67-0 on the second morning and accelerated from their half-centuries.
Jayasuriya took only 34 more balls to notch his 12th test century in 90 balls, which included three fours and a six off one Mpulelo Nkala over. By contrast, Atapattu racked his 13th hundred in tests in a sedate 153 balls, to go to lunch at 230 without loss.
Ten overs after the interval their stand was broken, surprisingly by Zimbabwe captain and wicketkeeper Tatenda Taibu, who'd taken off his gloves and pads to bowl medium-pacers. His third delivery was lobbed by Jayasuriya to Douglas Hondo in the gully.
Jayasuriya's 157 came off 147 balls, and included 19 fours and three sixes.
Kumar Sangakkara waited four hours to bat but after scoring 11 he top-edged a sweep at Stuart Matsikenyere, and sent the catch to Taibu at 312-2.
Atapattu rode his luck to tea. He survived a caught-and-bowled chance on 43, should have been given out leg before to Matsikenyere on 72, and in the second-to-last over before tea he was dropped by stand-in 'keeper Alester Maregwede, and escaped a run-out opportunity.
Meanwhile, the 12 striking Zimbabwe cricketers in dispute with the Zimbabwe Cricket Union said Saturday they want mediation talks with the ZCU as a first step to settle the differences and may make themselves available for the second test against Sri Lanka if the ZCU agrees to go to mediation. One of the dissident players, Trevor Gripper, said their eventual goal was arbitration, which is external and legally binding on both parties.
"Our decision to mediate is not yet set in stone," said Gripper. "We will want, during mediation talks with the ZCU, for those talks to develop into an arbitration process."
The players are to meet again on Monday, when they will discuss whether to formalize their provisional decision.
Stuart Carlisle told the Associated Press: "We are basically agreed on this course, but we still have a lot of talking to do among ourselves and with our representative. There are other issues which we need to address." He would not say what these are.
"We held discussions with Much Masunda and there were talks between our lawyer Chris Venturas and the ZCU lawyer Alwyn Pichanick, resulting in progress toward mediation and then, as far as we are concerned, moving to arbitration."
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