Watch: Jonny Bairstow shell-shocked after enduring rarest of rare run out in 2nd Ashes Test

The second half of the morning session on Day 5 did witness an absolute carnage from Ben Stokes, who raced away to his Test century to singled-handily keep England's hopes alive and might just pull off a Headingley-like classic on Sunday afternoon at the Lord's, yet the most talked-about and replayed part of the entertaining second Ashes Test will be that bizarre run out of Jonny Bairstow. And even though it was down to a smart piece of glovework from Australia wicket-keeper Alex Carey, Bairstow's inexplicable act was the essence of the dismissal.

It happened in the 52nd over, moments before Lunch on the final day of the Test match where England are hoping to level the series to 1-1 after Australia's win in Birmingham. Cameron Green dished out a short wide ball of off and Bairstow ducked it and then instantly started walking towards his partner Stokes. Usually, a player checks with the wicketkeeper or the player/s in the slip before they walk towards the other end, but Bairstow did none and casually walked out of the crease in a leisurely manner.

Carey, who was quite aware of the proceedings, under-armed the ball towards the stumps from his position and dislodged the bails. There was an instant appeal to follow, Bairstow was left completely shellshocked and befuddled at the sight of it and probably at the possibility of it. A few Australian players surrounded Stokes and Bairstow with some words being exchanged.

TV umpire Marais Erasmus soon had a look at the replays and it was ruled out. According to Law 20, a ball is considered dead when it is "finally settled", which is "is a matter for the umpire alone to decide." In fact, umpire Ahsan Raza had not even called it over. Later on Sky Sports commentary, former England captain Mike Atherton revealed a message from former award-winning umpire Simon Taufel who explained that the ball is not considered dead until "both sides disregard that the ball is in play."

Lord's crowd was not at all happy with the decision as they began chanting: "Shame old Aussies, always cheating," and kept roaring leading to each boundary that Stokes hit following the incident. Meanwhile, new batter Stuart Broad was seen tapping his bat at both ends while looking at the umpire each time and there were a lot of words being exchanged.