Sweet Indian revenge as England turn to jelly

Facing a major first-innings deficit already on the third evening at Trent Bridge, England's close fielders attempted to distract left-arm seamer Zaheer Khan by throwing jelly bean sweets onto the wicket as he batted.

He reacted angrily by brandishing his bat at Kevin Pietersen in the gully and later admitted he regarded the behaviour as “insulting”, inspiring him to claim five for 75 and leave India needing just 63 more runs for victory when they resume this morning on 10 without loss.

“There were some jelly beans on the crease while I was batting so I chucked one off the wicket to start with and then when I played the next ball there were some jelly beans on the wicket again, so obviously someone was chucking them from behind, which I didn't like,” explained Zaheer.

“I went up to them and asked 'what is all this about?' I'm here to play cricket and they came at me and I was upset about it and I reacted accordingly.

“I didn't know where it was coming from so maybe I picked the wrong one (fielder), but I wasn't bothered at that time. I felt it was insulting - I wasn't sure where it came from but it definitely came from a fielder.”

Zaheer responded to the incident with the ball while there was continued resentment which led to seamer Shanthakumaran Sreesanth being fined 50% of his match fee for breaching the ICC Code of Conduct by barging into England captain Michael Vaughan during a bad-tempered fourth day.

But India enjoyed their revenge with Zaheer's electrifying bowling display and he stressed: “We're here to play cricket and that's what we're looking to do...for me, it definitely inspired me to do well.

“When I go out onto the cricket field I'm serious and I'm there to play cricket. This is Test match cricket we're playing.”

No action has been taken so far over the original incident, but match referee Ranjan Madugalle may consider punishing those involved once the game finishes this morning.

England have attempted to make light of their childish behaviour with Paul Collingwood, who hit a determined 63, claiming: “Zaheer obviously came in and wasn't too pleased - I think he prefers the blue ones to the pink ones.”

England's only positive note during a disappointing fourth day was the brilliant 124 hit by captain Michael Vaughan, which appeared to have put his side on course for safety only for Zaheer to spark the collapse.

“It was exceptional,” enthused Collingwood. “It wasn't too easy out there but Michael had everything under control.

“He was positive and could easily gone on and got a really big one.’’

Second npower Test Match

Trent Bridge: England 198 ( Z Khan 4-59) & 355 (M P Vaughan 124 P D Collingwood 63 A J Strauss 55 Z Khan 5-75) India 481 (S R Tendulkar 91 S C Ganguly 79 K D Karthik 77 W Jaffer 62 V V S Laxman 54 M S Panesar 4-101) & 10-0