The Asia Cup 2025 Super 4 clash on Sunday between India and Pakistan ended up being a fairly one-sided affair after Indian openers Abhishek Sharma and Shubman Gill came all guns blazing in a chase of 172. The young and dynamic duo added 105 runs for the opening wicket, pushing Pakistan so far off the track that they never came back in the contest. The match saw many heated moments with players of both sides clashing with each other and engaging in verbal altercations during the entire game. The first controversy started when Pakistan opener Fakhar Zaman was adjudged out by the on-field umpires.
Zaman edged one behind off Hardik Pandya’s off-cutter and a diving Samson immediately claimed the catch. The on-field umpires referred it to the third umpire to check the legitimacy of the catch. The ball was very close to the ground when Samson caught it. After checking the replays a couple of times, once with the zoomed-in angle, the third umpire was convinced and ruled it out.
After the Pakistan camp showed visible dissent towards the decision, their captain, Salman Ali Agha, also questioned the legitimacy of the dismissal.
“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 after India beat Pakistan by six wickets in Dubai.
“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.
Zaman started aggressively, hitting two consecutive fours against Jasprit Bumrah in his first over as his intentions were clear to take on the bowlers from the beginning, but his innings was cut short after Samson caught him behind the wicket in Pandya’s second over.
Salman also seemed to have misread the pitch, calling it to “be on the slower side.” As it turned out, India made a mockery of 172 chase on a surface which was much better for batting, unlike Salman’s assessment.
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Pakistan batters, after getting a good start, failed to capitalise in the middle overs. Pakistan failed to hit a single boundary from the 11th over to the 16th over. Salman felt the final total of 171/5 was competitive, though still under 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,” he said.
“Wickets are such that it is not easy for a new batter to come and play shots straight away. So, a set batsman should go till the end. Indian batters also felt it hard to read the pace of the wicket. We lost two set batters in that phase and it derailed our momentum,” added Salman.
Speaking about the pitches in the UAE he said, “These conditions are not for 200. These conditions don’t allow you to score 200,” Salman said. “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.
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“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.”
