VIDEO | Bails refuse to come out of groove as 'lucky' Henry Nicholls stops by no-ball sign

After James Pattinson rattled the Kiwi top-order, leaving them to play for pride on the fourth day of the MCG, Mitchell Starc joined the party. He couldn’t have been any closer to take a wicket in the second innings as much as he was on the first ball of the 25th over. In simple reality, it was hard luck. 

The back of length delivery that Starc bowled, with a fiery pace of 144.5km/h, had everything to rattle any stump in the world but not at the MCG. The ball seamed back from the position of pitching as Nicholls was caught off-guard by it. He offered a shot but the trajectory of the ball was so inward that all he could manage was just an inside-edge. 

The story, however, doesn’t end there, in fact, it starts from here. The edge hit the leg-stump and the sound was so prominent that Nicholls looked back almost certain that he was out, only to be stopped by the 'no-ball' sign shown by the umpire. To his and everyone’s real surprise though, the bails were stay put as it was and the ball had raced to the fine-leg boundary for a boundary. Commentators were stunned, as was Nicholls himself.