Follow UsEngland’s Tammy Beaumont was in serious trouble when she kicked a ball that was thrown by Jemimah Rodrigues towards the stumps as soon as she completed a run in the fifth over of the chase in second ODI at Lord’s.
Beaumont flicked the ball from Deepti Sharma towards the right of Rodrigues at mid-wicket. She cut it off with a dive and sent the throw firing towards the stumps. Notably, Beaumont was already in her crease, but she just gently plonked her foot as the throw came towards her, and it hit her pads even before keeper Richa Ghosh could get her hands on the ball.
Ghosh appealed instantly against Beaumont for obstructing the field, along with Rodrigues, and the on-field umpires sent the decision to the third umpire Jacqueline Williams. Williams concluded that Beaumont was already in the crease and didn’t try to wilfully obstruct the path of the ball towards the stumps.
However, as per the laws on obstructing the field, this wasn’t as straightforward a decision to make. It’s because the replays clearly showed that despite making it back in her crease, Beaumont extended her leg towards the ball as it came at her.
Law 37.1.1 of the MCC states that, “Either batter is out Obstructing the field if and while the ball is in play, he/she wilfully attempts to obstruct or distract the fielding side by word or action.”
Going by this law, not only were India fair to appeal, but umpire Williams could have concluded that Beaumont chose to deliberately distract the fielding side by hitting the ball with her pads despite being in her crease.
However, the third umpire chose to ignore this part of the law and focused on the ball not going towards the stumps and the batter having already made her ground. On another day, a different third umpire could have read the situation differently and given Beaumont out for obstructing the field.