Watch: Ben Stokes Has A Laugh, Australian Players In Disbelief As Bails Don’t Dislodge Despite Ball Hitting Off-Stump

England have been completely outplayed in the Ashes series so far, with the hosts retaining the urn with two matches remaining, having taken an unbeatable 3-0 series lead. The fourth Test is currently being played at the Sydney Cricket Ground and things have pretty much gone the way of Aussies again. After winning the toss, Australia posted 418/8 declared with Usman Khawaja scoring a fine century. England, in reply, are struggling once again with the top four already back in the hut. But on Day 3, finally something seemed to go in England’s favour.

With England four down, Ben Stokes and Jonny Bairstow were battling out for survival when lady luck suddenly smiled upon the former.

In the 31st over, Cameron Green bowled a full-pitched delivery which Stokes decided to leave. The ball took a deflection and Australians appealed and Stokes was given out LBW by the on-field umpire. However, the England talisman immediately reviewed the decision and replays showed exactly why.

The ball was nowhere near his pads, in fact the deflection came from the ball cannoning into the off-stump but inexplicably the bails didn’t dislodge and Stokes lived to fight another day.

Upon seeing the replay on the big screen, Stokes couldn’t stop laughing even as the Australian players put their hands on their head in utter disbelief.

Watch this “unbelievable” moment here:

UNBELIEVABLE #Ashes pic.twitter.com/yBhF8xspg1

— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) January 7, 2022

At the time of writing this, Australia had crossed the 100-run mark with Stokes and Bairstow going strong.

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Earlier, Haseeb Hameed (6), Dawid Malan (3) and captain Joe Root (0) all fell for single digit scores with Australian pacer Scott Boland once again impressing with the ball.

Zak Crawley (18) put up a brief fight but his knock was ended prematurely by Boland.