Fact Check: India-Pak match – Fakhar Zaman not out as ball touches ground before catch? No, image is AI-generated

Hyderabad: The Super Four clash match between India and Pakistan during the Asia Cup 2025 took place on September 21 at the Dubai International Stadium. India chased the target Pakistan set and won the match with seven balls left.

In this context, an image is going viral on social media with the claim that Pakistan batsman Fakhar Zaman was wrongly dismissed during the match.

The image looks like a wicketkeeper stopping a ball between his sports gloves with the ball touching the ground.

Sharing the image, an X user wrote, “Now its clear Fakhar Zaman was NOT OUT, Retweet for the sake of justice. Umpire was wrong. #PakVsInd #AsiaCup2025 Pakistan vs India (sic)” (Archive)

Post sharing similar claims can be seen here.

Fact Check

NewsMeter found that the claim is false. The viral image is AI-generated.

Using the information from the image and the caption referring to a possible catch by the wicketkeeper, we checked the timeline of the match.

We found that during the third ball of the third over, Pakistan batsman Fakhar Zaman was dismissed after the ball was caught by Indian wicketkeeper Sanju Samson.

Was Sanju Samson’s catch legitimate?

Using a reverse image search, we found that the viral image was not shared by any credible news reports associating it with the Super Four match between India and Pakistan.

We found reports (links here and here) where Pakistan cricket players alleged that the ball looked like it bounced in front of the wicket keeper, insinuating that the dismissal of Fakhar Zaman was wrong.

However, a report published by Hindustan Times on September 22 stated that new evidence showed that Fakhar Zaman was rightly given out. The report was titled, ‘Fresh video evidence confirms third umpire rightly gave Fakhar Zaman out, vindicates Sanju Samson’s spot-on catch.’

The report said that Fakhar, looking to play on the offside against the off-cutter from Hardik Pandya, produced an outside edge as the ball went straight towards the keeper.

“Samson dived slightly and clutched it cleanly, but with the ball so close to the ground, the on-field umpires referred it to the third umpire. After careful scrutiny from multiple angles, the third umpire upheld the appeal, giving Fakhar out, leaving him stunned as he slowly made his way back to the pavilion.”

The fresh evidence in the report was a video and vindicated the Indian side.

Sharing the video posted on X, the report stated, “However, fresh footage posted on social media showed Samson’s gloves were indeed beneath the ball, confirming it was a clean catch. The zoomed-in clip clearly vindicated the third umpire’s decision.”

NDTV Sports also shared the same X post and wrote that Sanju Samson's catch was ‘clean’.

This proved that the catch was legitimate.

What is the source of the viral image?

Analysing the viral image closely, we found that the ball seems to be distorted. This is a common indication of images generated using Artificial intelligence (AI). Using Sight Engine, an AI detection tool, we found that the image is 79 per cent likely to be AI-generated.

Hive Moderation, another AI detection tool, found that the viral image is 97.9 per cent likely to be AI-generated.

The viral image is AI-generated. Therefore, NewsMeter concludes that the viral claim is false.