DUBAI: Pakistan T20I captain Salman Ali Agha raised eyebrows over Fakhar Zaman’s dismissal during the much-hyped Asia Cup match against India, saying the catch might not have been clean.
Speaking at a post-match media conference, Salman said:
“Fakhar Zaman’s dismissal could have been wrong, we thought the ball touched the ground but ultimately the call is with the umpires.”
Looking back at the match, the captain conceded that the side didn’t bowl to plan, even though they attempted to control India’s batting through a left-right bowling duo. He mentioned that Pakistan came short by 10–15 runs and should have scored more than 180 runs.
“We didn’t play a perfect game,” he claimed. “Indian batters batted brilliantly in the powerplay and took the game away from us.”
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Ahead of the future match, Salman was optimistic that the team would study its errors and correct them to face Sri Lanka.
earlier, Pakistan faced defeat in their second match against India in the Asia Cup 2025. India won by wickets, chasing down a target of 172 runs in just 18.5 overs, losing 4 wickets in the process.
The Indian batsmen performed exceptionally well, with Abhishek Sharma leading the charge with an aggressive innings of 74 runs off 39 balls. Shubman Gill contributed significantly, scoring 47 runs off 28 balls. Sanju Samson remained not out at the end with 13 runs, while Tilak Verma also scored 13 runs, and Hardik Pandya chipped in with 7 runs. Notably, Indian captain Suryakumar Yadav was dismissed without scoring, caught off a delivery from Haris Rauf.
India won the toss and elected to bat first, inviting Pakistan to take the crease. The Pakistani team managed to score 171 runs for the loss of 5 wickets in their allotted 20 overs. Sahibzada Farhan stood out with a solid innings, scoring 58 runs off 45 balls. Other contributions came from Saim Ayub (21), Fakhar Zaman (15), Hussain Talat (10), Muhammad Nawaz (21), and Salman Ali Agha (17). In the final moments, Faheem Ashraf played an aggressive knock, adding 20 runs off just 8 balls, which helped boost the total.
During the match, Indian fielders dropped 4 catches. In terms of bowling, Shivam Dubey took 2 wickets, while Kuldeep Yadav and Hardik Pandya each took 1 wicket.
It’s worth noting that in their first match played at the Dubai Stadium on September 14, India had comfortably defeated Pakistan by 7 wickets, successfully chasing down Pakistan’s target of 128 runs, losing only 3 wickets in the process.
