Watch: In one of the most bizarre passages of play you will ever see, Ben Stokes survived being given out lbw after replays showed the ball had missed his pad by a distance, and had instead hit off-stump with the bail staying on.

Stokes had battled hard to reach 16, but made a misjudgement on the first ball of Cameron Green’s sixth over. He left a delivery which came back in honing towards off-stump, with a sound as the ball passed the stumps indicating that it had hit something, seemingly the stump itself.

Australia began to celebrate, only to realise that the bails had stayed in place and appeal instead. Umpire Paul Reiffel raised his finger, concluding that a thin nick off the pad had in fact prevented the ball from hitting the stump.

Stokes reviewed straightaway, with replays quickly showing what many suspected but couldn’t quite believe had happened. The ball was shown to have hit off-stump hard, with the pole moving inwards before coming back to its original position, and the bail just staying in place.

There was some criticism for Reiffel, given that the ball had missed Stokes’ pad by a distance, but most of the reaction was simply awestruck at one of the most baffling incidents ever seen in the Ashes.

Stokes himself saw the funny side, laughing as the big screen showed the moment again. England had something to smile about, but not at all what you’d expect.

Watch the baffling Stokes non-lbw below:

Nonsense sport#Ashes pic.twitter.com/GZOrnRVjpF

— Wisden (@WisdenCricket) January 7, 2022

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