Sri Lanka reached the close on 456 for seven, a lead of 257 over Zimbabwe's first innings of 199.

Jayasuriya scored 157 in a first-wicket stand of 281 with Marvan Atapattu, who made 170, that was ended 10 overs after lunch when wicketkeeper Taibu stripped off his pads to bowl medium pace.

Taibu's third delivery found the outside edge of Jayasuriya's bat and looped to Douglas Hondo in the gully.

"We had to try something, and I tend to bowl quite straight," said Taibu.

"In fact, I was actually aiming for his pads and it was a bonus to get an edge."

Taibu's maiden Test wicket started a Sri Lankan slide in which they lost six wickets for 133 runs, four of them to the second new ball.

"We bowled tighter after lunch and that's been very good for us," Taibu said.

"The second new ball was important for us, and we knew we always had a chance with the ball swinging like it was."

Taibu said his team would have their work cut out to stay competitive in the match.

"We still need three wickets, and then we need to put our heads down and bat for a long time," he said.

"We let them bowl at us in the first innings, we were a bit negative and we need to change that in the second innings."

Sri Lankan off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan took six for 45 in the first innings to equal West Indian fast bowler Courtney Walsh's world record of 519 Test wickets.

Taibu said the probability of conceding a world record to Muralitharan in the second innings was "not something we're thinking about".