Asalanka and Madushka lead Sri Lanka to 5-wicket win in ODI series opener vs. West Indies

PALLEKELE, Sri Lanka (AP) — Opening batter Nishan Madushka scored a half-century on debut and shared a 137-run partnership for the fourth wicket with captain Charith Asalanka to guide Sri Lanka to a five-wicket win over West Indies in their rain-hit ODI cricket opener on Sunday.

West Indies captain Shai Hope won the toss and elected to bat first. His team scored 185-4 in 38.3 of its 50 allotted overs before rain halted the cricket at Pallekele.

When play resumed, Sri Lanka was given a target of 232 runs in 37 overs under the DLS method and it reached 234-5 with 31 deliveries to spare.

Sri Lanka lost its first wicket with the score on six when Avishka Fernando (5) was out caught at covers by Roston Chase off fast bowler Alzarri Joseph (2-39 in six overs). Kusal Mendis (13) skied Joseph and wicketkeeper Hope took a good high catch.

Sri Lanka were three down for 45 when Sadeera Samarawickrama (18) was bowled by left-arm spinner Gudakesh Motie with a flighted and turning delivery.

Asalanka and Madushka then came together for their 109-ball partnership.

Asalanka top scored with 77 off 71 deliveries including three sixes and eight boundaries. Madushka, standing in for injured regular opener Pathum Nissanka, hit a six and seven boundaries in his 69 off 54 deliveries.

West Indies spin bowlers struggled to grip the ball after the rain and to make matters worse their seam bowlers erred in their accuracy. Motie had both Madushka and Samarawickrama out later but it was too late. He took 3-47 for West Indies in eight overs.

Earlier, Sherfane Rutherford and Chase added 85 runs for the unbroken fifth wicket to give West Indies a competitive score before rain intervened. Rutherford was 74 not out off 82 deliveries including three sixes and five boundaries. Chase was a run-a-ball 33 not out.

Leg spin bowler Wanindu Hasaranga took 2-18 in six overs for Sri Lanka.

The one-day international series continues Wednesday at the same venue with the second of three games.

AP cricket: https://apnews.com/hub/cricket

West Indies' Sherfane Rutherford plays a shot during the first ODI cricket match between Sri Lanka and West Indies in Pallekele, Sri Lanka, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Viraj Kothalawala)

West Indies' Sherfane Rutherford, right, and Roston Chase run between the wickets during the first ODI cricket match between Sri Lanka and West Indies in Pallekele, Sri Lanka, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Viraj Kothalawala)

Sri Lanka's Captain Charith Asalanka plays a shot during the first ODI cricket match between Sri Lanka and West Indies in Pallekele, Sri Lanka, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Viraj Kothalawala)

Sri Lanka's Captain Charith Asalanka celebrates his fifty runs during the first ODI cricket match between Sri Lanka and West Indies in Pallekele, Sri Lanka, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Viraj Kothalawala)

Sri Lanka's Nishan Madushka plays a shot during the first ODI cricket match between Sri Lanka and West Indies in Pallekele, Sri Lanka, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Viraj Kothalawala)

Sri Lanka's Nishan Madushka celebrates his fifty runs during the first ODI cricket match between Sri Lanka and West Indies in Pallekele, Sri Lanka, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Viraj Kothalawala)

West Indies' Gudakesh Motie successfully appeals to dismiss Sri Lanka's Captain Charith Asalanka during the first ODI cricket match between Sri Lanka and West Indies in Pallekele, Sri Lanka, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Viraj Kothalawala)

Sri Lanka's Janith Liyanage plays a shot during the first ODI cricket match between Sri Lanka and West Indies in Pallekele, Sri Lanka, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Viraj Kothalawala)

Sri Lanka's Kamindu Mendis his team's win in the first ODI cricket match between Sri Lanka and West Indies in Pallekele, Sri Lanka, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Viraj Kothalawala)

Sri Lanka's Kamindu Mendis, left, and Janith Liyanage celebrate their team's win in the first ODI cricket match between Sri Lanka and West Indies in Pallekele, Sri Lanka, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Viraj Kothalawala)

Sri Lanka's Kamindu Mendis plays a shot during the first ODI cricket match between Sri Lanka and West Indies in Pallekele, Sri Lanka, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Viraj Kothalawala)

West Indies Sherfane Rutherford plays a shot during the first ODI cricket match between Sri Lanka and West Indies in Pallekele, Sri Lanka, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Viraj Kothalawala)

Sri Lanka's Captain Charith Asalanka, left, and Nishan Madushka, bump fists during the first ODI cricket match between Sri Lanka and West Indies in Pallekele, Sri Lanka, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Viraj Kothalawala)

One of the late golf legend Arnold Palmer's daughters calls Donald Trump's references to her father's genitalia “a poor choice of approaches" to honoring his memory, adding that she wasn't upset by the remarks.

“There’s nothing much to say. I’m not really upset,” Peg Palmer Wears, 68, told The Associated Press in an interview on Sunday. "I think it was a poor choice of approaches to remembering my father, but what are you going to do?”

On Saturday in Latrobe, Pennsylvania — the city where Palmer was born in 1929 and learned to golf from his father — Trump kicked off his rally in the campaign's closing weeks with a detailed, 12-minute story about Palmer that included an anecdote about what Palmer looked like in the showers.

“When he took the showers with other pros, they came out of there. They said, ‘Oh my God. That’s unbelievable,’” Trump said with a laugh. “I had to say. We have women that are highly sophisticated here, but they used to look at Arnold as a man.”

Wears said that she had only had passing encounters with Trump at functions decades ago but that her father and the GOP presidential nominee, an avid golfer who owns courses around the world, primarily shared a kinship over “an interest in golf and a love of golf.”

Emotional at times as she recalled conversations with her father, who died in 2016 at 87, Wears said her father “believed in the Republican Party.”

“A day doesn’t go by that I don’t think about what my father would say about something or what’s happening,” Wears said. “We didn’t always agree on things, but he was a quintessential American who believed fervently in this country, even when he questioned its direction.”

Asked three times Sunday on CNN's “State of the Union,” about what he thought of Trump's remarks, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., refused to answer.

“I’ll address it, let me answer it,” Johnson said, without ever answering the question. “Don’t say it again. We don’t have to say it. I get it.”

Gov. Chris Sununu, R-N.H., told ABC's “This Week” that he didn’t like Trump’s comments, including one in which he used a profanity to refer to Vice President Kamala Harris, but that the former president’s remarks would not sway voters one way or the other.

“I mean it’s just par for the course. He speaks in hyperbole. He gets his crowds riled up,” Sununu said.

But Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, an independent who backs Harris, argued the comments show how little Trump is focusing on important issues, which will turn off voters.

“I think you have a lot of Americans, whether you are conservative, whether you’re progressive or moderate, who say, ‘Really?’” Sanders said on CNN. “We have major issues facing this country. Is this the kind of human being that we want as president of the United States?

Wears, who declined to say for whom she would vote in the Nov. 5 election, said she would be casting her ballot in North Carolina, a pivotal state, and described herself as an “unaffiliated” voter.

“The people of western Pennsylvania are very smart people, and they’re very hard working, and they’ll make their own decisions, as I will make my own decision, using all the history and awareness I have,” Wears said of the upcoming election. “And that’s what I hope people go vote with.”

Kinnard reported from Chapin, South Carolina, and can be reached at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP. Associated Press writer Amand Seitz in Washington contributed to this report.

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump gestures at a campaign rally at Arnold Palmer Regional Airport, Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024, in Latrobe, Pa. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

FILE - Arnold Palmer, center, is seen with his daughters, Peggy Palmer, left, of Durham, N.C., and Amy Saunders, of Orlando, Fla., inside the barn of the Winnie Palmer Nature Reserve, in Latrobe, Pa., during the dedication of the reserve June, 30, 2007. ( Kim Stepinsky/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review via AP, File)