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KARACHI: New Zealand pace bowler Will O’Rourke took four wickets to restrict Pakistan to a modest 242 runs in the tri-series final in Karachi on Friday.
O’Rourke finished with 4-43 and was ably supported by spinners Mitchell Santner (2-20) and Michael Bracewell (2-38) as Pakistan were dismissed in 49.3 overs after they won the toss and batted.
Skipper Mohammad Rizwan top-scored with a 76-ball 46, while Salman Agha hit 45 off 65 balls, with slow and variable bounce on the National Stadium pitch proving tough for batting.
The final is a dress rehearsal for the opening match of the Champions Trophy between the same teams at the same venue on Wednesday.
Pakistan lost opener Fakhar Zaman to O’Rourke in the fourth over for 10 and then Saud Shakeel for eight.
Babar Azam looked good for his 29 runs, hitting four boundaries and a six, and reached 6,000 runs scored in one-day internationals when he was on 10.
He was playing his 123rd innings, the joint fastest to reach the 6,000-runs milestone with South African Hashim Amla.
Azam fell to a miscued shot off Nathan Smith, leaving Pakistan struggling at 54-3.
Rizwan and Agha, who shared a match-winning 260-run partnership against South Africa on Wednesday, then revived the innings with an 88-run stand.
Rizwan hit four boundaries and a six but he and Agha fell within 19 runs of each other to end any hope of a big total.
Tayyab Tahir hit a 33-ball 38, also with four boundaries and a six, while Faheem Ashraf (22) and Naseem Shah (19) added 39 invaluable runs to get Pakistan past 240.

ADELAIDE: Patrick Reed started the celebrations early in Friday’s opening round at LIV Golf Adelaide, while Majesticks GC’s Sam Horsfield and a couple of Torque GC teammates followed with the lowest scores on what proved to be a challenging day at The Grange.

Horsfield moved atop the individual leaderboard with a 6-under 66, while Torque took the team lead at 8 under thanks to a pair of 67s by captain Joaquin Niemann and Carlos Ortiz.

Defending champions Ripper GC received massive support from the Australian fans but struggled to generate many fireworks. They will play catch-up this weekend, starting Saturday’s second round 11 shots behind.

But it was Reed who produced the biggest shot of the day, with a hole-in-one at the Watering Hole less than 20 minutes after the shotgun start. His 8-iron at the 151-yard par 3 set off scenes reminiscent of two years ago, when Chase Koepka delivered LIV Golf’s first ace at the famous party hole. Reed’s ace is the ninth in league history.

“It’s awesome to give the fans what they want,” said Reed on his fifth competitive ace — and sixth overall — of his career. “That’s why we want to be out here: Golf, but louder.”

The hole-in-one was one of the few highlights of his 1-over 73, however, with the rest of the day belonging to several other competitors.

Among them were multiple major winners Dustin Johnson (68), Bryson DeChambeau (68) and Brooks Koepka (69), each inside the top 10 on the leaderboard.

But it was Horsfield who emerged with the solo lead, thanks to shooting the only bogey-free round of the day. In fact, he has made just one bogey in his last 60 holes going back to last week’s LIV Golf Riyadh, when he tied for 12th. He’ll enter this weekend in search of his first LIV Golf title.

“I feel like I’m playing really, really good,” said the Englishman. “Played solid last week. It's just nice to see that momentum from last week carry over and be able to put a low one out there today and try to do more of the same this weekend.”

Ortiz held the solo lead until a couple of late bogeys, and his captain Niemann also shared it temporarily until suffering his only bogey of the day on his next-to-last hole. Still, it was a productive afternoon for both players, who combined to win three individual titles a year ago.

“It’s unbelievable,” Ortiz said of the atmosphere in Adelaide. “The people here are great. The music is even better. This is probably my favorite tournament I’ve ever played in.”

Niemann tied for third in Adelaide a year ago and won the Australian Open in 2023. He said the enthusiastic Australian golf fans were definitely a factor in his performance Down Under.

“The Australian crowd is really good. They kind of like me a little bit, I think, and you can feel the energy,” he said. “There (are) a few guys following around, really energized, enjoying my shots, enjoying when I was making a putt. So that gets me going.”

DeChambeau was 4-under through his first nine holes but two poor swings resulted in a double-bogey 7 at the par-5 ninth. Thanks to a hot putter, though, he battled back down the stretch to stay close to the leaders and give himself a shot at his first individual LIV Golf title since 2023.

“Certainly, this is one of the best LIV events, if not the best LIV event, on our schedule, and it’s a joy coming back here with the fans and the people and the atmosphere,” he said. “This is what LIV Golf is about.”

Team Scores

LIV Golf’s new scoring format made its debut in last week’s season opener in Riyadh, with all four scores now counting in every round in the team competition.

Here are the results and scores for each team after Friday’s 1 of LIV Golf Adelaide.

1. TORQUE GC -8 (Niemann 67, Ortiz 67, Pereira 72, Munoz 74)

T2. FIREBALLS GC -6 (Ancer 68, Puig 70, Garcia 71, Masaveu 73)

T2. LEGION XIII -6 (Hatton 70, McKibbin 70, Rahm 70, Surratt 72)

T2. 4ACES GC -6 (Johnson 68, Varner III 70, Pieters 71, Reed 73)

T5. STINGER GC -5 (Schwartzel 69, Burmester 70, Grace 72, Oosthuizen 72)

T5. CRUSHERS GC -5 (DeChambeau 68, Lahiri 71, Casey 72, Howell III 72)

7. MAJESTICKS GC -2 (Horsfield 66, Stenson 69, Poulter 74, Westwood 77)

8. HYFLYERS GC E (Ogletree 70, Tringale 71, Mickelson 72, Steele 75)

T9. SMASH GC +3 (Koepka 69, Kokrak 73, McDowell 73, Gooch 76)

T9. IRON HEADS GC +3 (Lee 70, Jang 71, Na 71, Ormsby 79)

T9. RIPPER GC +3 (Herbert 71, Smith 72, Leishman 73, Jones 75)

12. CLEEKS GC +4 (Bland 69, Meronk 71, Kaymer 73, Kjettrup 79)

13. RANGEGOATS GC +5 (Watson 70, Campbell 73, Uihlein 73, Wolff 77)

Wild Cards: Lee 72, Kim 73