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Pakistan were left gasping for breath after Sri Lanka had punched and counter-punched, but Asad Shafiq and captain Sarfraz Ahmed breathed some life back into them on the fourth day at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium.
Pakistan are not out of the woods just yet, five down for 198 runs, still 119 runs adrift of the 317 target and with no recognised batsman after this.
There is still three sessions left to play out on Tuesday, three sessions for Pakistan to ward off the threat at their fortress. The match is on a knife's edge and it all hangs in the balance.
Shafiq is perhaps playing one of the most important innings of his life, on 86, while Sarfraz is there on 57, having put on a valiant partnership of 146.
Quite interestingly, all the Pakistan batsmen were able to negate left-arm spinner Rangana Herath.
Earlier, Pakistan had ample time to go for it with five sessions left then, but they dug a deep hole and the Lankans were in a bit of a hurry to wrap things up.
Their scorecard made for some sorry reading with Pakistan five down for 52. The television network had run a statistic of Sri Lanka's series wins outside home.
That will now have to wait.
Meanwhile, it was quite a bit of mayhem under lights on Sunday night with Wahab Riaz eating into Lanka's advantage. With 15 overs to see out the night, Lanka's back was broken by an inspired burst by the left-arm pacer.
Mohammad Abbas had ignited it by seeing the back of Kaushal Silva after which Riaz prised out first innings centurion Dimuth Karunaratne, debutant Sadeera Samarawickrama and captain Dinesh Chandimal, with leg-spinner Yasir Shah accounting for Suranga Lakmal, in between.
It left Lanka precariously placed on 34 for 5, a lead of 254, and Riaz's spell left the door ajar just a little bit for Pakistan to sneak in.
After Pakistan were left to play catch up, Riaz had evened things out and had made this into a contest. Monday afternoon for Sri Lanka was about soaking in the pressure in the first period and try and push that lead beyond 300.
And Niroshan Dickwella began well by picking twin boundaries of Riaz's over.
Dickwella then went on to survive an appeal for a catch in the fourth over of the day. The wicketkeeper-batsman tried to reverse sweep Shah but missed and it hit the arm guard and was caught by the fielder at short leg. It was agonisingly close to the glove and Pakistan went for a review but TV umpire S Ravi had a look and the on-field decision stayed.
Dickwella then struck Riaz for two successive boundaries, first, a punch through covers and then glancing it down gully.
But Riaz was to win the battle having him caught by Sarfraz for 21 from 21 balls. Dickwella tried to drive and edged and Sarfraz pulled off a stunner by diving to his left.
Sri Lanka were 59-6 and were soon to 60 for 7 after Dilruwan Perera was leg before to Shah for nought in the next over.
Rangana Herath went for broke with two consecutive boundaries off Shah, a sweep and a reverse paddle and later Kushal Mendis ran a doube off Shah to nudge Lanka's lead to 300.
But then, Haris Sohail went on restrict Lanka's lead to 316. The part-time spinner, snapped up three wickets in an over - Herath, Mendis and Nuwan Pradeep as Lanka were all out for 96.
Sohail became the only bowler to take three wickets in one over in Test history.
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