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I was trying to protect myself: Stokes

England allrounder says he did not intentionally block Mitchell Starc throw during the second ODI at Lord's

England allrounder Ben Stokes remains adamant he did not intentionally block Mitchell Starc's throw at the stumps in Saturday's one-day loss to Australia at Lord's.

Stokes became just the seventh player in the history of international cricket to be given out under law 37 of the game - obstructing the field - when third umpire Joel Wilson judged he wilfully got in the way of Starc's attempted run out with his outstretched glove.

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However Stokes maintains he was just protecting himself.

"A guy was standing there five feet away from me and it was just a complete reaction," Stokes told ESPNcricinfo.

"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."

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The verdict, and Australian captain Steve Smith's decision not to call Stokes back, sparked widespread debate from former players and incited jeering from the usually controlled Lord's crowd for the remainder of the match.

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"The crowd maybe got a bit out of control, there was a lot of booing going on with the incident," Stokes said.

"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."