David Bedingham touched the ball with his hand after it got lodged in his pads.
On the second afternoon of the World Test Championship (WTC 2025) final at Lord's, South Africa's David Bedingham acknowledged that he had "panicked big time" following a handled-the-ball incident that momentarily threatened to send Australia's wicketkeeper Alex Carey into yet another round of cricket tussling.
In the last over before lunch, Bedingham, who was at 31 at the time, played off the back foot to Beau Webster and inside-edged the ball into his pad-flap, putting Carey at the center of another odd Australian appeal.
Bedingham grabbed the ball as it started to gently roll down the side of his thigh in the direction of Alex Carey, who was keeping behind the stumps and watching for a possible catch. He quickly assisted it in finding the safety of the ground.
Pat Cummins, the Australian captain, and his teammates were closely watching the incident, which had the potential to cause a huge commotion very soon. Following a quick consultation, umpire Richard Illingworth declared a dead ball.
After the play that day, Bedingham, 31, openly acknowledged to the media that the situation might have come out as "dodgy."
“I panicked big time because I think Carey was standing up, so he was quite close. I think, the way I dropped the ball, picked up the ball, came across a bit dodgy,” Bedingham was quoted as saying by ICC.
In his post-match day press conference, Australia's captain Pat Cummins downplayed the incident, although he said that if the umpires hadn't signaled a dead ball, he probably would have withdrawn the appeal.
“The umpires said it was (a) dead ball first of all, but I think we would have withdrawn (the appeal),” he said.
Bedingham stated that he was glad Australia withdrew the appeal, and there was no controversy.
"I'm just glad they withdrew the appeal, because there [would be] more controversy and that type of stuff. 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,” Bedingham added.
According to the relevant laws, a ball becomes dead when: whether played o,r not it becomes trapped between the bat and person of a batter or between items of his/her clothing or equipment, [or] lodges in the clothing or equipment of a batter or the clothing of an umpire.”
Australia finished day 2 on 144/8 in their second innings and have a lead of 218 runs against South Africa.