Temba Bavuma's DRS Call Gives Rise To Controversy; Players, Umpires, Commentators Left Surprised
Day 2 of the ongoing 2023-25 World Test Championship final between South Africa and Australia had a couple of controversial moments. Both of them took place during the Proteas' batting at Lord's in London on Thursday. One of them included South Africa captain Temba Bavuma. The right-handed batter was hit on the back pad while playing a back of a length delivery from Australia's Josh Hazlewood. The ball nipped in and hit Bavuma with the umpire raising his finger over an appeal for an LBW. The South Africa captain took his time as he went to David Bedingham at the other end, had a chat with him and then decided to go upstairs.
Prima facie it looked that Bavuma was out but the replay had a different result. While there was a decent gap when the ball passed the bat, UltraEdge showed a spike there, forcing the third umpire to reverse the decision made by the ground umpire.
DRS saved Temba Bavuma pic.twitter.com/7nQu78Gf1w
— Gurlabh Singh (@gurlabhsingh610) June 12, 2025
The Australian players were left in shock. Commentator Ian Smith was also surprised over the decision while Mel Jones too had similar thoughts about it.
"Well that's an interesting one for me, I've got to say. Because it took forever to think about reviewing it. When you feel as if you've got a touch on it you just automatically say 'I'm sorry, I'm reviewing that because I believe my bat has made contact with the ball there'. There was no semblance of that in that discussion. That was so interesting," said Jones.
"This was the slightly controversial one because everything aligned in terms of the LBW shout," she said over another replay.Temba Bavuma's reaction was all about 'do we use the review, was it going to hit'. It didn't feel at all like he had that inside edge," she added.
Appears to be a gap between the bat and ball
For someone who got an inside edge Bavuma looked far from convinced he hit it before review. #WTC2025 #AUSvSA pic.twitter.com/R0nvnQMIr5
— Bernie Coen (@berniecoen) June 12, 2025
Bavuma was clearly out! Clearly some technical glitch on the snickometer. There was clearly no edge!
— Troll cricket unlimitedd (@TUnlimitedd) June 12, 2025
In another controversial moment on the day, Australia spinner Beau Webster's delivery nipped back in and got an inside edge of David Bedingham's bat and nearly stopped close to his pad. As Australia wicketkeeper Alex Carey was moving close to the batter to catch the ball, Bedingham collected the ball, which was in motion and dropped it on the ground. There were a couple of appeals, from Usman Khawaja and Steve Smith. Australia wicketkeeper Carey went ahead with the appeal, pointing out towards an obstruction of field, but the umpires were unconvinced. Australia captain Pat Cummins ended up laughing over the incident.
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