Indian player talking to the umpire after the catch was canceledImage Credit source: Screenshot
The match played between India A and Pakistan Shaheen in the Asia Cup Rising Star 2025 tournament ended in a one-sided manner. In this match, Pakistani team defeated the Indian team by 8 wickets in 13.2 overs. The match may have been one-sided but it also witnessed controversies and some of the umpires’ decisions were questionable. The biggest controversy took place regarding the catch of Pakistani batsman Maaz Sadaqat, which was declared not out. It was Sadaqat who played the innings that gave victory to Pakistan.
Gave not out even after catch
Batting first in this match, India A had scored 136 runs. Maaz Sadaqat, who was opening for Pakistan, gave a fast start to the team by batting explosively. This batsman had scored a half-century in just 31 balls. After completing his fifty, he got a lease of life when Vaibhav Suryavanshi dropped an easy catch. But after this his catch again bounced on the very first ball of the 10th over. This time Nehal Vadhera caught him near the boundary at long on. But before it crossed the boundary, he completed the catch by throwing the ball towards the other fielder.
Team India felt that they had got the wicket, while Pakistani batsmen also started returning to the pavilion and the new batsman had come to the crease. But then the umpire stopped Sadaqat because the third umpire was checking whether the catch was correct or not. After watching the replays several times, it became clear that Vadhera had thrown the ball towards the other fielder at the right time without touching the boundary line. In this way, he looked clearly out but the third umpire declared him not out. Seeing this, the Indian players surrounded the umpire and started questioning this decision, while the coaching staff of Team India also started discussing with the fourth umpire.
Decision changed due to new law
But why did it happen that Maaz Sadaqat was given not out? If seen, the umpire’s decision was absolutely correct and the reason for this is the change in the laws of catching. ICC had made 3 changes in the rules related to boundary catches along with the new World Test Championship cycle in June 2025 and only the third law came into force here, which is related to ‘relay catch’. According to this, if a fielder throws the ball towards another fielder before crossing the boundary, then that fielder himself will have to come back inside the boundary before the ball becomes dead, only then it will be considered a catch. If this does not happen then it will be declared a boundary.
This means that Nehal Wadhera had thrown the ball inside the boundary on time but he himself had to return inside the boundary before the other player could catch it. In this case, Nehal forgot to do this and was outside the boundary at the time of completion of the catch. Due to this the umpire gave the batsman not out. Apparently the players of India and Pakistan were not properly aware of this change in the law of catching, due to which this confusion occurred. But in this Pakistan benefited and India suffered loss. However, the umpire also made a mistake and instead of giving it a boundary, it did not give any runs.