New Zealand beats Sri Lanka by 9 wickets in 1st ODI to lead the series 1-0

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Will Young made an unbeaten 90 and shared a 93-run opening partnership with Rachin Ravindra which propelled New Zealand to a nine wicket win over Sri Lanka in the first one-day international Sunday and a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.

Earlier, Matt Henry took 4-19 as New Zealand bowled out Sri Lanka for 178 in just over 43 overs in a match played in chilly conditions at the Basin Reserve. New Zealand was 180-1 when it reached its winning target in the 27th over.

Young posted his 11th ODI half century and Ravindra returned to form with a bright 45 from 36 balls which included six fours and a six. Mark Chapman was 29 not out at the end.

“Obviously, changing formats and getting back into some one day cricket, the guys were excited,” said Henry who took three of his wickets bowling into the teeth of the gale. “It was great to get the series underway.”

New Zealand won the toss and sent Sri Lanka in on a pitch that had been covered because of recent rain, suiting the home team's four-pronged pace attack. A bitter southerly wind blasted across the Basin Reserve throughout the match, dropping temperatures to 14 degrees (57 Fahrenheit) in high summer.

Avishka Fernando scored a gritty half century in an 87-run partnership with Janith Liyanage which provided the substance of Sri Lanka's innings, rallying the tourists after they had slumped to 23-4 in the 10th over.

Fernando made 56, his fifth ODI half century, and Liyanage made 36, coming back into the Sri Lanka team after missing the three-match Twenty20 series which New Zealand won 2-1.

Henry, Nathan Smith and Jacob Duffy all claimed early wickets to put Sri Lanka on the back foot, then New Zealand captain Mitchell Santner broke the key partnership between Fernando and Liyanage.

Santner took a wicket, effected a run out and took three catches from Henry's bowling to take a busy role in Sri Lanka's innings.

After a watchful start, Sri Lanka lost the key wicket of opener Pathum Nissanka in the fifth over.

Nissanka made 141 runs at an average of 47 in the T20 series. He had made only 9 Sunday when he tried to work a ball from Henry through midwicket but, as it seamed away, managed only to loop it to Santner at mid-off.

Santner produced a sharp piece of fielding to run out Kamindu Mendis (3) and captain Charith Asalanka was caught by wicketkeeper Mitchell Hay from Smith's bowling.

Fernando and Liyanage steadily rebuilt the Sri Lanka innings, carrying it to 108-4 after 25 overs. The 26-year-old Fernando produced a defiant innings, reaching his half century from 52 balls with six fours and a six.

Liyanage tried to hoist a ball from Santner over the off side but skied it from a top edge and was caught by the substitute fielder Michael Bracewell. Fernando was out in the next over, driving at a ball from Smith which sliced to Glenn Phillips at backward point.

Chamindu Wickramasinghe and Wanindu Hasaranga (35) put on 48 for the seventh wicket before Henry returned and dismissed Wickramasinghe on 22.

The teams meet again at Seddon Park in Hamilton on Wednesday.

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

New Zealand's Will Young celebrates scoring 50 runs during the first ODI international cricket match between New Zealand and Sri Lanka at the Basin Reserve, Wellington, New Zealand, Sunday, Jan. 5, 2025. (Kerry Marshall/Photosport via AP)

New Zealand's Rachin Ravindra and Will Young react during the first ODI international cricket match between New Zealand and Sri Lanka at the Basin Reserve in Wellington, New Zealand Sunday, Jan. 5, 2025. (Kerry Marshall/Photosport via AP)

New Zealand's Mitchell Santner takes a catch to dismiss Sri Lanka's Wanindu Hasaranga during the first ODI international cricket match between New Zealand and Sri Lanka at the Basin Reserve in Wellington, New Zealand Sunday, Jan. 5, 2025. (Kerry Marshall/Photosport via AP)

New Zealand's Rachin Ravindra leaves the field after being caught by Sri Lanka's Wanindu Hasaranga during the first ODI international cricket match between New Zealand and Sri Lanka at the Basin Reserve in Wellington, New Zealand Sunday, Jan. 5, 2025. (Kerry Marshall/Photosport via AP)

New Zealand's Will Young bats during the first ODI international cricket match between New Zealand and Sri Lanka at the Basin Reserve in Wellington, New Zealand Sunday, Jan. 5, 2025. (Kerry Marshall/Photosport via AP)

New Zealand's Rachin Ravindra and Will Young play during the first ODI international cricket match between New Zealand and Sri Lanka at the Basin Reserve in Wellington, New Zealand Sunday, Jan. 5, 2025. (Kerry Marshall/Photosport via AP)

New Zealand's Rachin Ravindra and Will Young interact during the first ODI international cricket match between New Zealand and Sri Lanka at the Basin Reserve in Wellington, New Zealand Sunday, Jan. 5, 2025. (Kerry Marshall/Photosport via AP)

New Zealand's Will Young bats during the first ODI international cricket match between New Zealand and Sri Lanka at the Basin Reserve in Wellington, New Zealand Sunday, Jan. 5, 2025. (Kerry Marshall/Photosport via AP)

Sri Lanka's Kamindu Mendis bats during the first ODI international cricket match between New Zealand and Sri Lanka at the Basin Reserve, Wellington, New Zealand. Sunday, Jan. 5, 2025. (Kerry Marshall/Photosport via AP)

Sri Lanka's Avishka Fernando, right, celebrates after scoring 50 runs during the first ODI international cricket match between New Zealand and Sri Lanka at the Basin Reserve in Wellington, New Zealand, Sunday, Jan. 5, 2025. (Kerry Marshall/Photosport via AP)

Sri Lanka's Janith Liyanage bats during the first ODI international cricket match between New Zealand and Sri Lanka at the Basin Reserve in Wellington, New Zealand Sunday, Jan. 5, 2025. (Kerry Marshall/Photosport via AP)

New Zealand's Nathan Smith checks on Michael Bracewell after he hits his head taking a catch to dismiss Sri Lanka's Janith Liyanage during the first ODI international cricket match between New Zealand and Sri Lanka at the Basin Reserve in Wellington, New Zealand Sunday, Jan. 5, 2025. (Kerry Marshall/Photosport via AP)

New Zealand's Michael Bracewell takes a catch to dismiss Sri Lanka's Janith Liyanage during the first ODI international cricket match between New Zealand and Sri Lanka at the Basin Reserve in Wellington, New Zealand Sunday, Jan. 5, 2025. (Kerry Marshall/Photosport via AP)

New Zealand's Nathan Smith appeals for the wicket of Sri Lanka's Charith Asalanka during the first ODI international cricket match between New Zealand and Sri Lanka at the Basin Reserve, Wellington, New Zealand. Sunday, Jan. 5, 2025. (Kerry Marshall/Photosport via AP)

Sri Lanka's Avishka Fernando, right, celebrates after scoring 50 runs during the first ODI international cricket match between New Zealand and Sri Lanka at the Basin Reserve in Wellington, New Zealand, Sunday, Jan. 5, 2025. (Kerry Marshall/Photosport via AP)

Sri Lanka's Janith Liyanage bats during the first ODI international cricket match between New Zealand and Sri Lanka at the Basin Reserve, Wellington, New Zealand. Sunday, Jan. 5, 2025. ( (Kerry Marshall/Photosport via AP)

Sri Lanka's Kamindu Mendis bats during the first ODI international cricket match between New Zealand and Sri Lanka at the Basin Reserve, Wellington, New Zealand. Sunday, Jan. 5, 2025. (Kerry Marshall/Photosport via AP)

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — President Joe Biden on Monday visited a makeshift memorial at the site of the deadly New Year’s attack in New Orleans, holding a moment of silence before meeting with grieving families and attending a prayer service.

Biden and first lady Jill Biden made their first stop in the city Monday evening at a memorial that sprung up on city’s famous Bourbon Street, where the attack began last week when an Army veteran drove a truck into revelers, killing 14 and injuring 30 more.

Flowers and messages had been left at the base of more than 14 crosses erected on the sidewalk in the French Quarter. After Jill Biden placed white flowers at the memorial, she and the president stood in silence and bowed their heads.

Joe Biden crossed himself, and the the couple headed to the historic St. Louis Cathedral nearby, where the president and first lady met privately with the families of those killed, survivors and local law enforcement. Afterward, they were expected to attend an interfaith prayer service.

The visit is likely to be the last time Biden travels to the scene of a horrific crime as president to console families of victims. He has less than two weeks left in office.

“I think what you’re going to see this president do today is show up for the community, be there for the community in the hardest time," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters aboard Air Force One on the way to Louisiana.

She went on, speaking about Biden's own understanding of loss, and said, “He believes this is also an important part of the job that he believes he needs to do as president.”

It's a grim task that presidents perform, though not every leader has embraced the role with such intimacy as the 82-year-old Biden, who has experienced a lot of personal tragedy in his own life. His first wife and baby daughter died in a car accident in the early 1970s, and his eldest son, Beau, died of cancer in 2015.

“I've been there. There’s nothing you can really say to somebody that’s just had such a tragic loss," Biden told reporters Sunday in a preview of his visit. "My message is going to be personal if I get to get them alone.”

Biden often takes the opportunity at such bleak occasions to speak behind closed doors with the families, offer up his personal phone number in case people want to talk later on and talk about grief in stark, personal terms.

In addition to the meeting with families, Biden hoped to visit with first responders in New Orleans, according to Jean-Pierre.

The Democratic president will continue on to California following his stop in New Orleans. With a snowstorm hitting the Washington region on Monday, Biden's trip began with Air Force One starting its takeoff from inside a large hangar instead of on the tarmac as thick snow covered the ground at Joint Base Andrews and snowplows worked to clear the runway.

In New Orleans on Jan. 1, the driver plowed into a crowd on Bourbon Street. Fourteen revelers were killed along with the driver. Shamsud-Din Jabbar, who steered his speeding truck around a barricade and plowed into the crowd, later was fatally shot in a firefight with police.

Jabbar, an American citizen from Texas, had posted five videos on his Facebook account in the hours before the attack in which he proclaimed his support for the Islamic State militant group and previewed the violence that he would soon unleash in the French Quarter.

Biden on Sunday pushed back against conspiracy theories surrounding the attack, and he urged New Orleans residents to ignore them.

“I spent literally 17, 18 hours with the intelligence community from the time this happened to establish exactly what happened, to establish beyond any reasonable doubt that New Orleans was the act of a single man who acted alone,” he said. “All this talk about conspiracies with other people, there’s not evidence of that — zero.”

The youngest victim was 18 years old, and the oldest was 63. Most victims were in their 20s. They came from Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, New York, New Jersey and Great Britain.

Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Republican, was asked on “Fox News Sunday” what the city was hoping for from Biden's visit.

“How can we not feel for both the families of those who die but also those who’ve been injured in their families?” he asked.

“The best thing that the city, the state, and the federal government can do is do their best to make sure that this does not happen again. And what we can do as a people is to make sure that we don’t live our lives in fear or in terror — but live our lives bravely and with liberty, and then support those families however they need support.”

Jean-Pierre said Monday that Biden was directing additional resources to help New Orleans with major upcoming events, including Mardi Gras and the Super Bowl, with both events being assigned the highest level of federal support for security measures.

Associated Press writers Fatima Hussein in Washington and Michelle L. Price in New York contributed to this report.

New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell, left, greets city council member Lesli Harris before an interfaith prayer service for the victims of the deadly New Years truck attack, at St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans, Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden stop at the site of the deadly New Years truck attack, in New Orleans, Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

President Joe Biden is greeted by New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell, Rep. Cleo Fields and Rep. Troy Carter and wife Andree Carter, as he arrives Air Force One at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport in New Orleans, Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden stop at the site of the deadly New Years truck attack, in New Orleans, Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

President Joe Biden speaks with reporters after signing the Social Security Fairness Act in the East Room of the White House, Sunday, Jan. 5, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)