‘Came across as a bit dodgy:' How Australia avoided Lord's ‘handling the ball' meltdown
London: Australian captain Pat Cummins has revealed he would have withdrawn an appeal for handled the ball against South Africa's David Bedingham had the umpires not ruled dead ball as Alex Carey sweated on a possible catch.
Two years on from the Jonny Bairstow stumping that had Lord's in a state of tumult, Carey was close by as Bedingham flicked away a ball that looked to have lodged in his pad flap. Such a lodging is a dead ball under the game's laws, but it happened quickly enough for some speculation about whether the Australians would have appealed.
'The umpires said it was dead ball first of all, but I think we probably would have withdrawn [the appeal], yeah,' Cummins said after play on a hectic day two of the World Test Championship final.
Softly-spoken Bedingham was relief personified after admitting he had panicked with Carey so close by. 'I panicked big time, because Carey was standing up so he was quite close,' he said. 'The umpires said regardless I think it was dead ball, but the way I dropped the ball, picked up the ball, came across as a bit dodgy.
'But I'm glad they withdrew the appeal because there's more controversy in other stuff, so I'm glad nothing happened out of it really. The slip cordon just told me 'don't panic, just leave it', but in the moment I think I panicked big time, yeah.'
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Carey returned to Lord's for the first time since the infamous Bairstow stumping – only to narrowly avoid being swept into another storm of cricketing controversy.
In the final over before lunch on day two, Australia's wicketkeeper found himself again at the centre of an odd dismissal debate. This time, with Bedingham at the crease.
The delivery from Beau Webster angled in and deflected off Bedingham's inside edge into his thigh pad. From there, it bobbled gently along the top of his right leg guard and started to fall away.
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