Pat Cummins weighs in on handled ball drama on day two of World Test Championship final

A relieved David Bedingham has relived the moment he was almost caught up in another Australian controversy at Lord’s, as Pat Cummins also weighed in on the handled ball drama.

Australian captain Pat Cummins said he would have withdrawn his appeal if the umpires dismissed a “panicked” and admittedly “dodgy” South African star.

David Bedingham, alongside Temba Bavuma, was leading the Proteas’ resurgence when he escaped one of cricket’s rare forms of dismissal.

After edging the ball into his pad flap off the bowling of Beau Webster, Bedingham sensed opportunistic gloveman Alex Carey and removed the ball by hand.

The umpires came together but granted the South African the benefit of doubt and judged it a dead ball.

David Bedingham removes the ball after it gets stuck in his pads. Picture: Getty Images

England condemned Cummins for not withdrawing his appeal of the now infamous stumping of Jonny Bairstow in Australia’s last visit to Lord’s two years ago.

But Cummins, albeit in far less controversial scenes, said he would have kept Bedingham at the crease if it fell Australia’s way.

“The umpires said it was dead ball first of all, but yeah I think we would have withdrawn, yeah,” he said.

A relieved Bedingham was appreciative that the Aussies didn’t embroil him in another well-documented dismissal.

“I panicked big time, because I think Carey was standing up, so he was quite close,” he said.

“The umpires said regardless it was dead ball but the way I dropped the ball, picked up the ball came across a bit dodgy.

“I am glad they withdrew their appeal because there’s more controversy in that kind of stuff, I am glad nothing happened after it really.

“I just think the slip cordon told me, ‘Don’t panic, leave it’, but in the moment I panicked big time.”

Despite his moment of fluster, Bedingham was never in trouble under ICC rule 20.1.1.4.

The ruling states: “The ball becomes dead when … whether played or not it becomes trapped between the bat and person of a batter or between items of his/her clothing or equipment”.

Originally published as Pat Cummins weighs in on handled ball drama on day two of World Test Championship final