Rajkot, Nov 13 (IANS) Both England and India played down a nets incident during the practice session on the eve of the first one-day international match here Thursday.
England were upset when a ball flew from the Indian nets, narrowly missing batting coach Andy Flower, who was supervising the practice session at the Madhavrao Scindia Cricket Ground.
Andrew Flintoff then went over to Indian nets to have a word with bowling coach Venkatesh Prasad.
England captain Kevin Pietersen, who was batting in the nets at the time of the incident and also clipped a switch-hit shot towards the India nets, played down the incident after the practice session.
'I haven't got a clue what happened because I was batting at the time,' Pietersen said. 'I heard something was going on but I was concentrating on my batting.
'I don't think too much needs to be read into it - if a guy is practising his shots, he's practising his shots, so there's nothing to read into it.'
India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni also shrugged off the incident saying that such things happen when both teams have big hitters.
'There are big hitters on both the sides and I believe that was the reason why the ball kept flying around - there is no problem,' he said.
India and England had a bad-tempered Test series in 2007 but Pietersen insisted there is no animosity.
'I think India plays its cricket tough, we play our cricket tough as do Australia and South Africa - nations play with pride and passion, which is fantastic. Cricket is a religion out here and they play passionate cricket and that's why we're here - to test ourselves in difficult conditions,' he said.
|
|
Read More: Rajkot
Comments:
