Warne equals record as Lankans settle for draw

Sri Lanka resisted a Shane Warne push for a world wicket-taking record to cling on for a tense draw with two wickets left in the second Test.

Sri Lanka resisted a Shane Warne push for a world wicket-taking record to cling on for a tense draw with two wickets left in the second cricket Test against Australia on Tuesday.

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The Sri Lankans repulsed the Australian attack with Warne equalling Sri Lankan spinner Muttiah Muralitharan's world record of 527 wickets.

Chaminda Vaas (11) and Nuwan Zoysa (3) played out the remaining 57 balls in dimming light to stave off defeat for Sri Lanka with Australian fielders crowding around the bat.

Sri Lanka survived at 183 for eight after being set 355 runs to win off 85 overs following a Matthew Hayden-fuelled second innings declaration an hour before lunch.

Hayden was named man of the match and man of the two-match series for scoring hundreds in both innings of the Cairns Test.

Warne equalled Murali's world record when Upul Chandana was stumped by Adam Gilchrist for 14 nine overs from the finish. It was a line-ball decision and the umpires had to call on the TV umpire to adjudicate on the stumping.

Warne finished with 4-70 off 37 overs.

Sri Lanka looked as though they wouldn't need to rely on the last-ditch efforts of Vaas and Zoysa as Kumar Sangakkara stonewalled Australia's attack for almost four and a half hours before Warne got through his defences, bowling him for 66 in the 70th over of the innings.

Sangakkara, dropped twice, played with great resolve for 173 balls and upon his departure Sri Lanka were 159 for seven.

Australia looked on course for a fifth consecutive victory over the Sri Lankans in five months and wrapping up the two-match home series after last week's 149-run win in Darwin inside three days.

Any hope Sri Lanka had of chasing victory evaporated when they lost the wickets of Sanath Jayasuriya, Mahela Jayawardene and Tilan Samaraweera in the hour after lunch to leave them struggling at 64 for four.

Tillakaratne Dilshan and Sangakkara steadied things with a gritty 43-run stand for the fifth wicket, but Dilshan was snapped up by Warne at first slip for 21 off Jason Gillespie to send Sri Lanka to tea at 107 for five.

Warne moved to within two wickets of the world record when Romesh Kaluwitharana, stretching forward to play Warne, was caught by Darren Lehmann for 14 to leave Sri Lanka 136 for six.

Gilchrist played out the day with a broken nose after a rearing Warne delivery hit him flush while keeping up to the wicket when Sangakkara was on 48.

Australia declared their second innings at 292 for nine, the highlight being a swashbuckling 117 by Hayden, his second hundred of the match.

Hayden followed up his first innings 117 to score a commanding 132 off 171 balls with 10 fours and a booming six. It was the 20th century in his 55th Test and the second time the 32-year-old left-hander has scored a hundred in both innings of a Test.

Hayden scored 197 and 103 against England at the Gabba ground in Brisbane in 2002 and is the 12th Australian batsmen to score centuries in both innings of a Test match.

Skipper Ricky Ponting's declaration decision was delayed by a clutter of wickets with Australia losing their last seven wickets for 97 runs before Ponting called a halt at the fall of Gillespie's wicket at 292 for nine.

Damien Martyn did not add to his overnight score of 52 before he was stumped by Kaluwitharana off Chandana in the second over of the day.

Lehmann produced another improvising innings of 21 before he holed out to Jayawardene at deep mid-wicket off Chandana to leave Australia at 261 for four.

Hayden opened his shoulders to smash off-spinner Samaraweera for six before Simon Katich continued his run of low scores when he was stumped for one off Tillakaratne Dilshan.

Hayden was bowled trying to get at Chandana two balls later leaving Australia at 284 for six and Warne followed four balls later when he back-cut Chandana to Samaraweera for four.

Gilchrist lasted two balls before he was bowled by Dilshan for a duck and Gillespie's stumping dismissal off Chandana signalled the end of the innings to set a teasing target for the Sri Lankans.