Controversy at Lord's as SA star survives bizarre 'handling the ball' appeal from Carey; what do the laws actually say?
David Bedingham seemed to have obstructed the field, but had the umpires on his side as they interpreted it as a dead ball before he handled the ball.
What is an ICC final without a solid share of controversy? One such moment came about in the last over before lunch on day two of the World Test Championship final, as David Bedingham found himself at the end of an appeal for one of the rarer forms of dismissal — obstructing the field.
A strange situation found Bedingham inside edge a delivery from Beau Webster into his thigh, before the ball trickled down and ended up in his pad flap. With Australia wicketkeeper Alex Carey standing up to the stumps and quickly figuring out where the ball is, Bedingham grabbed that ball and dropped it to the ground.
The Australian fielders went up in a half-appeal, prompting the umpires on-field to have a quick convention to decide what to make of it. While Bedingham had a sheepish look on his face, realising the error he might have made, he got away with it as the umpires decided that he hadn’t broken the obstructing the field law.
What do the laws say?
As per law 37.3.1 in the ICC rulebook: “The striker is out obstructing the field if wilful obstruction or distraction by either batter prevents the striker being out caught.” Since the ball had never struck the ground, if Carey had picked it up from the pad flap, Bedingham would have been given out.
However, this rule is superseded by the rule for when a dead ball is announced, which automatically means a wicket is taken off the table. Law 20.1.1.4 states that the ball is dead when it “becomes trapped between the bat and person of a batter or between items of his/her clothing or equipment.”
The matter becomes slightly subjective and contentious given Bedingham seemed to handle the ball before it truly came to a rest, with the ball still slightly moving around and not entirely lodged in place. While some argued this would be grounds for a wicket due to obstruction, others argued that it likely was dead in that moment, especially if interpreting the spirit of the law beyond just the letter of it.
Whatever the case, Australia didn’t suffer too much from the situation. Bedingham was batting on 31* at the time, and would be dismissed as one of Pat Cummins’ several victims soon after lunch, the batter not able to do much to bring the Proteas closer to the first innings total.
