Asia Cup 2025: ‘For me, ball bounced before keeper’ – Salman Agha on Fakhar Zaman’s caught-behind decision

Sanju Samson and Fakhar Zaman. (Photo source: Sony LIV)

Pakistan captain Salman Ali Agha questioned the legality of opener Fakhar Zaman’s dismissal, suggesting that the ball might have bounced before reaching wicketkeeper Sanju Samson.

Fakhar had looked in good touch, smashing two boundaries off Jasprit Bumrah in his opening over to give Pakistan some momentum in the powerplay. However, his stay was cut short when he edged an off-cutter from Hardik Pandya. Samson took the catch close to the ground, and after a thorough review, the third umpire ruled it a clean catch. Fakhar was dismissed for 15 off 9 balls.

“I don’t know about the decision. It’s obviously the umpire’s job. Umpires can make mistakes. And I have no problem with that. But it does look like it bounced before it was carried to the keeper,” Salman said as quoted by Cricbuzz.

“But I might be wrong. I don’t know. You can say the way he was batting, if he batted throughout the powerplay, we probably would have scored 190. But yeah, that’s the umpire’s call. And they can make mistakes. I don’t know. To me, it bounced before it reached the keeper,” he added.

That tight call went India’s way, as Pakistan’s batting faltered after a bright start. They had raced to 55/1 in six overs, marking their highest powerplay score against India in 15 T20Is, surpassing 54/0 in Ahmedabad in 2012. They were placed strongly at the halfway stage as well, amassing 91/1, the third-highest 10-over total in Asia Cup 2025 and comfortably their best against India. However, they managed only 30 runs in the next six overs while losing three wickets to lose the momentum.

Although the pitch offered plenty of support for the batters, Pakistan’s middle-order struggled to find gaps once the ball got older. They hit just two boundaries after the powerplay, both coming in the last three overs. Salman felt that their final total of 171/5 was competitive, though still slightly below par.

“It wasn’t a disappointing total, but we should have scored 10-15 more runs. After 10 overs, when the ball gets soft, it is not easy to score runs in this venue. But the start we had, we should have scored 180 plus,” Salman said.

“It wasn’t a disappointing total, but we should have scored 10-15 more runs. After 10 overs, when the ball gets soft, it is not easy to score runs in this venue. But the start we had, we should have scored 180 plus,” he added.

Pakistan have batted first in all four of their Asia Cup fixtures. The Pakistan captain commented that the pitches in the UAE are not as flat as those back home, which has influenced the way the team approaches their batting.

“These conditions are not for 200. These conditions don’t allow you to score 200. You have to respect the conditions. You can’t say that you want to score 200 if the par score is 160, that would be careless. If you get us good pitches, then you will see the same kind of batting that you saw against Bangladesh [at home]. So, I think there is a lot of difference in the conditions,” said Salman.

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