England all-rounder Ben Stokes has suggested that he did not wilfully block Mitchell Starc's throw at the stumps during his side's second one-day international with Australia on Saturday.
The 24-year-old was dismissed after Starc's attempt to hit the stumps for a run out was blocked by Stokes's hand, but the New Zealand-born player has insisted that he did not intend to stop the throw.
"A guy was standing there five feet away from me and it was just a complete reaction," Stokes told ESPN. "I didn't put my hand there wilfully, it was purely out of human reaction to protect myself. But the decision was made, there's nothing I can do but it wasn't wilful whatsoever.
"The crowd maybe got a bit out of control, there was a lot of booing going on with the incident. It's one of those decisions where you can't look back and have any regrets because it's been made, you can't change what's happened it's just a shame it came to the uproar it has.
"It probably took away from the fact that we haven't actually played very good cricket in the first couple of games which is the biggest thing for us so we just have to put it behind us."
England lost to Australia by 64 runs in Saturday's match.
