Hobart awaits dramatic finale

DIGGING DEEP: Sri Lanka's wicketkeeper-batsman Kumar Sangakkara pulls the ball during his fine knock of unbeaten century on the fourth day of the second Test against Australia in Hobart yesterday.Photo: AFP

Brett Lee undermined Sri Lanka's hopes of chasing down a history-making 507 runs against Australia in the second cricket Test with two crucial wickets late on the fourth day here Monday.
The pace spearhead lured Marvan Atapattu into a trap for his favoured hook shot and then bowled first-innings centurion Mahela Jayawardene next ball to put the Australians in the box seat for victory on Tuesday's final day.
Sri Lanka's hopes will now rest on Kumar Sangakkara, who reached his 15th Test hundred late in the day.
The Sri Lankans still need 260 runs with seven wickets in hand for a stunning come-from-behind win.
The Australians are looking for another convincing victory to wrap up what has been a lopsided series after romping to an innings and 40-run win in Brisbane.
Australia are closing in on their 14th consecutive Test victory, the sequence beginning against South Africa in Melbourne in December 2005.
At the close, Sangakkara was unbeaten on 109 in 292 minutes with Sanath Jayasuriya not out 33 in an unbroken 89-run stand. Sri Lanka were 247 for three.
Lee, Australia's outstanding bowler of the two-match series with 14 wickets so far, broke Atapattu's stubborn 143-run second-wicket partnership with Sangakkara.
He set up Atapattu on 80 for the hook shot and the batsman hit the ball straight to the safe hands of Phil Jaques, positioned on the square leg boundary.
Lee galloped down the pitch in elation when he bowled Jayawardene with his next ball for a duck with a swinging delivery that collected off-stump and left the Sri Lankan skipper shaking his head in disbelief. Jayasuriya saw off Lee's hattrick ball.
Atapattu, 36, probably playing in his last Test for Sri Lanka after seeking a playing stint with a Sydney club, defied the Australian attack for 215 minutes, hitting nine fours off 164 balls.
His partnership with Sangakkara had stabilised the innings on a benign pitch after opening partner Michael Vandort made a hash of a pull shot and was easily caught for four before lunch.
Sangakkara, who missed the Brisbane Test loss with a hamstring injury, reached his elegant century with a boundary off a full toss from misfiring leg-spinner Stuart MacGill.
Lee's dismissal of Jayawardene was a huge one for Australia, with the Sri Lankan skipper topscoring with 104 in the first innings.
The tourists began disastrously when Vandort badly miscued an attempted pull shot off Mitchell Johnson and skied to Rhett Lockyer, a fielding substitute for the injured Andrew Symonds.
Australian skipper Ricky Ponting, who remained unbeaten on 53 with Mike Hussey on 34, made the declaration 45 minutes before lunch, giving his bowlers just over five sessions to bowl out the Sri Lankans.
The Sri Lankans will have to create history to win the Hobart Test.
The world record fourth innings run chase for victory was 418 for seven by the West Indies against Australia in Antigua in May 2003.
The highest winning run chase at Bellerive was Australia's 369 for six against Pakistan in November 1999 -- which ranks as the fourth highest in Test history.
Opener Phil Jaques was the only Australian wicket to fall on Monday, caught on the point boundary by Vandort off Lasith Malinga for 68.
Jaques was chasing his third consecutive century against Sri Lanka in the series.