India and England look to play down tensions after tempers flare in the nets

Relations became strained at Trent Bridge 15 months ago when Ian Bell tried to distract India’s batsmen by placing jelly beans on the pitch during a Test match.

If that was a puerile prank that backfired (India went on to win the series 2-1) there was no sugar coating to Thursday’s set-to, which saw tempers rise after cricket balls were struck into each others net areas.

England, probably because they were ideally situated at cow corner for India’s right-handers, came under the greatest bombardment and were the first to react when Andrew Flintoff marched over to upbraid India’s bowling coach Venkatesh Prasad.

Andrew Flintoff had been waiting to bat when another mighty slog from India’s nets scattered those waiting to bowl to Kevin Pietersen and Owais Shah.

It probably wasn’t deliberate on India's part, but some fairly robust language was obviously used by Flintoff, for England’s players stopped to watch as Big Freddie strode over to Prasad gesticulating with his bat as to how close the ball had come to hitting someone.

Later, Andrew Flintoff refused to comment on the matter, though Prasad, perhaps sensing a row brewing, said they were just having friendly chat as they hadn’t seen each other for a while.

Cricket balls can cause serious damage, especially if they strike you unawares, and just in case Flintoff’s message was ignored, Peter Moores also went over to speak with his opposite number Gary Kirsten.

Afterwards, both coaches as well as both captains, were keen to play down the incident.

“Gary’s a sound guy and I just went over and had a word about it,” Moores said, after practice had finished.

“It’s unusual for two teams to practice at the same time. Also, the nets are quite low so it’s easy for the ball to go out of them when someone is practicing the slog-sweep. Nobody was hurt but the last thing you want is for someone to get hit.”

Pietersen, who belted one of his famous switch-hits straight into India’s net (just about the only retaliation England got in all morning), said he wasn’t aware of the exchanges going on as he was batting at the time. “But we mustn’t read too much into it,” he said.

India’s captain, Mahendra Singh Dhoni , one of those who powered a few in England’s direction, was equally blasé.

Dhoni said: “There are big hitters on both sides, and balls were flying around everywhere.”

One man oblivious to the spat was Ravi Bopara, back in the England side ahead of Luke Wright.

Although the Rajkot pitch for Friday's one-day international has more grass on it than you usually see in India, England obviously feel Bopara’s cricket genes will be stirred enough by their ancestral setting to help them win the seven-match series.