Pathum Nissanka's superb unbeaten fifty left Sri Lanka eyeing a memorable win over England as the third Test at the Oval headed for a dramatic finish.

Sri Lanka were 94-1 when bad light led to an early close on Sunday's third day, needing a further 125 runs to reach a victory target of 219 that would end a run of seven successive Test defeats by England.

Dimuth Karunaratne was caught and bowled by Chris Woakes for eight when a drive ballooned off his pad.

But fellow opener Nissanka, who made 64 in Sri Lanka's first innings, was 53 not out after completing his second fifty of the match in style when he blazed debutant left-arm fast bowler Josh Hull through the covers for a seventh four in 42 balls faced.

The recalled Kusal Mendis, meanwhile, pounced on numerous loose deliveries during an unbeaten 30 featuring 24 runs in boundaries.

That Sri Lanka were chasing over 200 to win was mainly down to Jamie Smith's superb counter-attacking 67 that rescued England from a woeful collapse.

England, already 2-0 up in this three-match series, lost five wickets for 26 runs in slumping to 82-7.

But wicketkeeper Smith's dashing display on his Surrey home ground helped England recover to 156 all out, although they were still bowled out in a mere 34 overs.

Smith's innings left England, who routed the West Indies 3-0 earlier in the season, with renewed hope of a first home Test clean sweep since 2004.

'Tricky situation' 

"It certainly hasn't been our best day of the summer," England assistant coach Paul Collingwood told the BBC after stumps.

"We've manged to find ways of getting out of tricky situations and we'll have to find a way tomorrow.

"Sri Lanka, give them full credit...They got a lot of movement and were very, very accurate with the ball."

Smith fell on the stroke of tea when he chipped Vishwa Fernando to short midwicket to end a brilliant 50-ball innings featuring 10 fours and a six.

Left-arm quick Vishwa Fernando, gaining prodigious swing, also captured the prize scalp of Joe Root for just 12 on his way to 3-40, with Lahiru Kumara enjoying a fine return of 4-21 in seven overs.

"This game we went for the extra (fourth) seamer and that paid off," Sri Lanka fast-bowling coach Aaqib Javed told reporters.

The former Pakistan fast bowler also praised Sri Lanka's quicks for finding a way to counter the England batsmen's dynamic 'Bazball' approach.

"This is what their style is, being aggressive," Javed said. "Sometimes that puts pressure on the bowling side. The first day we didn't do well as we missed our lines. But they learned from that and bounced back. In the second innings, they showed good character."

Both opener Ben Duckett and Ollie Pope, fresh from 154 in England's first innings -- his first Test century since taking over as captain from the injured Ben Stokes -- fell for seven.

Dan Lawrence, a middle-order batsman by trade, had been promoted to open this series in place of the injured Zak Crawley.

Lawrence had yet to get beyond the 30s in four previous innings against Sri Lanka and it was a similar story on Sunday when a frenetic run-a-ball 35 -- England's second-top score of the innings -- ended with him caught behind off Kumara after charging down the pitch to drive.

Root's square-driven four off Vishwa Fernando took him past Sri Lanka great Kumar Sangakkara's tally of 12,400 Test runs and into sixth place in the all-time list.

Two balls later, however, Vishwa Fernando's excellent inswinging yorker struck Root on the boot and he was lbw.

Brook was also lbw to another fine inswinger from Vishwa Fernando.

Smith counter-attacked, scoring 20 runs in an over from Milan Rathnayake that featured several boundaries including a crunching pull for six.

Earlier, Olly Stone and 20-year-old quick Hull did the bulk of the damage as Sri Lanka, who resumed on 211-5, lost their last five first-innings wickets for 52 runs in 16.2 overs.