England captain Michael Vaughan has insisted there was nothing untoward about his team's use of substitute fielders and instead said all eyes should be on next week's climatic Ashes Test.
Australia skipper Ricky Ponting's unhappiness with England's use of the 12th man during the third Test - where the home side won by three wickets to take a 2-1 lead to The Oval - boiled over at Trent Bridge.
He let loose a foul-mouthed tirade, including a volley of abuse at England coach Duncan Fletcher, after he was run out by replacement Gary Pratt.
The outburst saw Ponting fined 75 percent of his match fee but that hasn't stopped him or his team-mates continuing to complain about their opponents' use of substitutes, which they say England are deploying as a means of giving their fast bowling quartet time to warm-up and cool down before and after spells.
Unfortunately for Ponting's argument, Pratt was on the field at the time as a replacement for Simon Jones. The Glamorgan quick, who has taken 18 wickets in the series at an impressive average of 21 apiece, was sidelined with an ankle injury that later saw his foot encased in a surgical boot and has left him having to undergo oxygen chamber treatment in a bid to be fit for The Oval.
Even the greatest conspiracy theorist would concede there was something odd about England not using a bowler who had earlier taken five wickets in the first innings to help Australia follow-on for the first time in 17 years second time around.
And Vaughan, speaking at his washed-out benefit match at Headingley between a Yorkshire XI and his side, featuring several England stars, here Wednesday insisted: "We haven't done anything against the laws of the game.
"Guys have taken that much fluids on that they are just nipping off to go to the toilet; they are always back on within a minute or two.
"It is a situation Australia are not happy with but we feel we are doing nothing against the laws of the game. We really do not feel we are doing anything untoward.
"I am certainly not telling my team to go and have an extra five minutes' rest. If a player needs the toilet he has to go to the toilet.
"We are not a team that are going to try to bend the rules. We are quite an honest team.
"I do not want to get into an argument about it, there has been a lot of talk and I am sure there will be a little more.
"But it should not get in the way of a fantastic series. How the two teams have played has been fantastic for the game of cricket."
England, who lost the series opener by 239 runs at Lord's, are now on the brink of wresting back the Ashes from Australia for the first time in 16 years but Vaughan said there was still work to do against the world's number one side.
"It is a tremendous achievement coming back from 1-0 down and written off. The challenge is now to do it for a fourth consecutive game. "I always felt we would get over the line on Sunday, I always felt we would win at Edgbaston. In fact, I had a sneaking suspicion we would get the final wicket at Old Trafford (where Australia clung for a draw with tenth-wicket duo Brett Lee and Glenn McGrath at the crease).
"I guess the final match at The Oval will be very similar if the rest of the summer is anything to go by.
"We will try to play in exactly the same fashion, we have played good cricket and we want to continue in that way."
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