Harmanpreet Kaur-led India awarded five penalty runs against Australia in the Women's ODI World Cup 2025 clash at the ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam during the 29th over of the innings.
The incident happened when Annabel Sutherland’s slower ball beat the attempted slog sweep by Pratika Rawal before foxing Alyssa Healy behind the stumps. The ball struck the helmet before trickling to deep fine leg.
Here's what the rule says
As per 28.3.2 of the MCC rule book, the umpire awards five runs to the batting side if the ball strikes a helmet belonging to the fielding side, which has been placed on the ground.
“Any runs completed by the batters before the ball strikes the protective helmet shall be scored, together with the run in progress if the batters had already crossed at the instant of the ball striking the protective helmet,” the clause adds.
In the case that batters did not cross before the ball hit the helmet, and therefore no further runs were awarded to the batting side.
India vs Australia innings report
Smriti Mandhana and Pratika Rawal hard hard-hitting fifties helped India to post a strong 330 against Australia in their Women's World Cup match. After being asked bot bat, India were served well by openers Mandhana (80, 66 balls) and Pratika Rawal (75, 96b) on a pitch that had little assistance for the Aussie bowlers.
The genesis of India's batting charge was in the 155-run opening stand between Mandhana and Rawal in just 24.3 overs, also atoning for their previous individual and joint failures against Sri Lanka, Pakistan and South Africa in the ICC mega event.