Check out: What the cricket world had to say on Ben Stokes’ incident

London: World Cup-holders Australia won by 64 runs to go 2-0 up in the five-match series but that was all overshadowed by the exit of Ben Stokes during England's unsuccessful run chase.

In the 26th over, Stokes struck a straight drive which was stopped by bowler Mitchell Starc. Left-arm paceman Starc then hurled the ball back hard towards Stokes who, leaning back and turning his head away, stopped it with a hand taken off the bat.

Australia appealed, believing Stokes had prevented a possible direct hit run out on his own stumps, and on-field umpires Kumar Dharmasena of Sri Lanka and former England batsman Tim Robinson referred the issue to third umpire Joel Wilson.

The relevant cricket Law or rule talks about "wilful obstruction" and does allow batsmen to protect themselves from injury.

"The way I saw it, he was out of his ground, and he wilfully put his hand out – which is the rule and he got given out by the third umpire," added the captain, who top-scored with 70 when batting conditions were at their toughest in an Australia total of 309 for seven.

"If you look at it, the ball was going towards the stumps, and wasn't even going to hit him. So I think he's put his hand out to stop the ball," Smith said.

"The guy throws the ball in your direction from five yards, and all you can do is flinch," England captain Eoin Morgan told Sky Sports after Stokes became only the second England batsman after Len Hutton to succumb to this rare form of dismissal.

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The booing, of Starc especially, continued until the end of the match, which came when England captain Eoin Morgan was out for 85, the highest score in a total of 245.

Here’s what some of the members from the cricket fraternity had to say:

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Whether you feel @benstokes38 was out or not out. In his defence most batters would of had that same natural instinct to protect themselves.

— Brendan Taylor (@BrendanTaylor86) September 5, 2015

Smith will regret that decision in the future #ENGvAUS #BenStokes

— Paul Collingwood (@Colly622) September 5, 2015

In retaliation to @benstokes38 decision the British government have decided to remove Neighbours from our TV screens!!

— Alec Stewart (@StewieCricket) September 5, 2015

Ben Stokes 6th ODI batsman to be dismissed "obstructing the field" The list also includes 4 Pakistanis and one Indian #EngvAus

— Mohandas Menon (@mohanstatsman) September 5, 2015