Tillakaratne Dilshan’s century and a side strain to paceman Ben Hilfenhaus helped Sri Lanka stage a fightback with the bat on Sunday on day three of the first Test against Australia.

Sri Lanka resumed on 4-87 and were bowled out for 336 after tea on day three in reply to Australia’s first innings of 5(dec)-450 as Peter Siddle gave an heroic performance to claim 5-54.

Siddle – who bowled himself to the point of exhaustion when James Pattinson broke down with a side strain in the Adelaide Test against South Africa last month – performed a similar role on Sunday and sent down 25.3 overs including 11 maidens.

Dilshan scored 147 and shared a record fifth-wicket stand of 161 with Angelo Mathews (75).

Siddle finally broke through in the sixth over with the second new ball when Mathews was out lbw at 5-248 shortly before tea.

Mitchell Starc then bowled Dilshan to make it 6-289.

The aggressive Dilshan hit 21 fours in his seven-hour knock, posting his 15th Test hundred and second against Australia.

Siddle removed Prasanna Jayawardene lbw for 40 on a third-umpire referral.

Rangana Herath was also lbw to Siddle for a duck. Unfortunately for the batsman, TV replays showed an inside edge onto his pad but the tourists had no referrals remaining.

Spinner Nathan Lyon (2-76) and Siddle took the final two wickets in the following two overs, with 18 overs left in the day’s play before a small crowd of 4,388.

Australia struggled in the field, notably when wicketkeeper Matthew Wade launched a half-hearted appeal for caught-behind against Dilshan on 125 from the bowling of Siddle and was turned down.

Channel Nine’s replays showed a nick which would have been upheld if Australia captain Michael Clarke had called for a referral to the video umpire.

David Warner also missed a run-out chance with Dilshan on 114.

Wade missed a simple stumping off Lyon when No.8 Nuwan Kulasekara was on three.

Hilfenhaus grimaced in pain after delivering the second ball of his fourth over of the day. The swing specialist walked slowly from the field and was taken to hospital for scans.

Left-arm quick Mitchell Johnson – 12th man in Hobart – would be the obvious candidate to replace Hilfenhaus for the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne as Australia count the cost of a series of injuries to their quicks including Pattinson, Ryan Harris and Patrick Cummins.