A fake photo showing a wicketkeeper’s gloves holding a ball touching the grass is being shared on social media with the false claim that it is from the India-Pakistan Asia Cup match on September 21. The photo is being shared claiming that Pakistani opener Fakhar Zaman was not out and was unfairly dismissed by the third umpire.
BOOM checked the official broadcast of the India-Pak match and found that the viral image does not match with the visuals shown during the coverage.
During Pakistan’s first innings in the T20 match, Zaman was dismissed in the third over after edging a delivery by Hardik Pandya that was caught by Indian wicketkeeper Sanju Samson. The on-field umpires referred the decision to the third umpire, who, after reviewing the replay, found enough evidence to confirm it was a clean catch and signaled out. In the replay, Samson can be seen leaning forward to take the catch low to the ground. The commentators for the game expressed their doubts over the umpire's call.
The Claim: Photo shows catch taken by Indian wicketkeeper Sanju Samson showing the ball touching the ground
The viral photo is being shared on X with the caption, "Now its clear Fakhar Zaman was NOT OUT , Retweet for the sake of justice. Umpire was wrong #PakVsInd #AsiaCup2025"
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What We Found:
1) Match Footage Mismatch
BOOM watched the official broadcast of the match and the highlights available on Sony Liv and the Asian Cricket Council’s YouTube channel. The visuals from the India-Pakistan game do not match the viral photo.
At the 3:36 timestamp, the catch taken by Samson can be seen and unlike the viral photo, the official footage shows some part of Samson’s glove positioned below the ball, while we cannot clearly see ball touching the grass, like the viral photo shows.
2) Visual Inconsistencies
In the viral photo, we can spot several visual inconsistencies comparing it to visuals from the match, such as unnatural cricket ball size and the seam looks distorted.
3) AI Detection Tool result
We also ran the photo on Hive moderation, an AI-detection tool, flagged the photo as 98% AI-generated.