Sri Lanka attempted to regain control of their Australian tour on Friday, surviving a testing 19-over period before lunch as they set about chasing the Chairman’s XI’s first innings total of 6-439.

The tourists endured a horror time on the opening day of their clash at Canberra’s Manuka Oval on Thursday, which continued into day two, as unheralded NSW opener Scott Henry cracked an unbeaten 207.

But Sri Lankan openers TM Dilshan and Dimuth Karunaratne exacted some revenge for their battered bowlers, taking the long handle to Victorian offspinner Glenn Maxwell (0-23 off four overs) to reach lunch at 0-60, still 379 in arrears of the hosts.

Dilshan creamed three fours back-to-back in the second-last over before the break, punishing Maxwell over mid-wicket and straight down the ground, to race to 35 off 52 after a slow start.

Karunaratne also showed extreme patience to start the innings as he saw off openers Matt Gale (0-8) and Luke Butterworth (0-16).

Karunaratne, who has played just one Test and is touring as the back-up opener to Tharanga Paranavitana, survived a strong appeal for lbw on 10 when young Tasmanian left-armer Sam Rainbird trapped him on the crease.

Earlier, Henry brought up his double century with consecutive boundaries off Dhammika Prasad as the Chairman’s XI piled on 49 more runs in the morning session before the compulsory declaration after 100 overs, as per the rules of the three-day game.

Henry started the day 28 short of his milestone, but struck six boundaries to reach it in quick time after the resumption of play.

Prasad, who went for 0-101 on Thursday, struck two blows by removing Travis Head (35) and Sam Whiteman (4) to finish with 2-128, the only multiple wicket-taker for Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka rested four of their big names, including captain-in-waiting Angelo Mathews, star spinner Rangana Herath and middle-order batsman Thilan Samaraweera.