SA vs AUS | Twitter unimpressed as David Bedingham finds himself in the middle of controversial handling the ball appeal

‌After restricting Australia to 212 under overcast conditions on the first day of the World Test Championship 2025 final, South Africa struggled their way to 43/4 to end proceedings on the backfoot. However, they came with a fresh lease of energy on the second morning to counterattack the Aussies and get closer to their total.

The Proteas skipper Temba Bavuma and David Bedingham built a crucial partnership of 64 to see them out of the woods. Bavuma was aggressive as he scored two lofted boundaries off Mitchell Starc in the third over of the day. But against the run of play, he was dismissed by Pat Cummins trying to go for another drive and getting caught at cover by Marnus Labuschagne.

But Bedingham continued to look solid and took the game forward with wicketkeeper-batter Kyle Verreynne. And just as the Proteas were looking to end the first session on a high, a controversial moment came up. Australia wicketkeeper Alex Carey came up to the stumps for medium pacer Beau Webster to put the pressure back on Bedingham.

And it almost worked as the Proteas batter got an inside edge off a ball that pitched on a length outside off-stump before moving in sharply. The ball went on to get trapped on his pads as Carey rushed forward to get the ball. Panicked by that, Bedingham quickly put the ball from his flap into the ground with Usman Khawaja and Steve Smith going for an appeal for handling the ball.

The ball seemed to be still in motion as the proceedings unfurled with the on-field umpires getting together for a chat. They quickly decided that the ball was dead without referring the matter to the TV umpire.

Twitter and the Aussie players were not impressed with the quick decision as they wanted a detailed investigation to conclude that the ball was completely dead and the batter was not out.