Having rattled through the last eight New Zealand wickets for just 80 to dismiss the hosts for 221, Sri Lanka were on the run at stumps at 78 for five.
New Zealand's seamers had made better use of favourable bowling conditions with the recalled Doug Bracewell leading the way with two wickets in his opening six-over spell after 14 months out of the test side, and a third in the day's final over to finish with three for 23 in 7.4 overs.
Trent Boult made the initial breakthrough having Dimuth Karunaratne caught at third slip in his fifth over.
Fellow opener Kaushal Silva was unlucky, jamming a Bracewell delivery down only to have it bounce up and land on the top of the stumps.
Lahiru Thirimanne drove early to spoon a catch to mid off while captain Angelo Mathews had a rare failure, being caught behind off Tim Southee for 15.
Wicketkeeper Prasanna Jayawardene was out in the final over, edging Bracewell to third slip.
Key batsman Kumar Sangakkara had battled through to stumps, having passed 12,000 test runs when he reached five, and was on 33 at the end of the day.
Only India's Sachin Tendulkar (15,921 runs), Australian Ricky Ponting (13,378), South African Jacques Kallis (13,289) and India's Rahul Dravid (13,288) have scored more than the classy lefthander. However Sangakkara was fastest of the quintet to 12,000 by at least 23 innings.
He had a life on 20 when he slipped setting off for a run and would have been run out at the bowlers' end had the throw been accurate or a fielder been up at the stumps. Twice he got inside edges to Bracewell deliveries which flew past his leg stump.
Earlier Sri Lanka's bowlers were guilty of wasting the new ball in the first session, but made up for it in the middle period as three New Zealand batmen conspired to play balls onto their stumps and Nuwan Pradeep and Suranga Lakmal led a much improved seam bowling performance.
Kane Williamson was the pick of the New Zealand batsmen, continuing his fine form to reach 69.
Pradeep, who missed selection for the first test, which New Zealand won by eight wickets, finished with his best test figures, four for 63 while Lakmal took three for 71.
- by David Leggat of the NZ Herald
