By IANS
London : England captain Michael Vaughan has apologised to star Indian bowler Zaheer Khan for the 'jelly bean' incident that caused an unpleasant stand-off between Khan and Kevin Pietersen on the field Sunday evening.
Speaking to newspersons after India's resounding victory at the second Test in Nottingham, England coach Peter Moores also admitted that the home team's conduct had "got out of hand".
Vaughan, however, insisted that the whole affair had been blown out of proportion, and argued that there was no connection between Zaheer's fit of pique and his brilliant bowling spell that restricted England's second innings reply to India's imposing total.
Vaughan said: "Zaheer bowled pretty well in the first innings as well, and at Lord's. I don't think any of this was a huge inspiration for him, or the reason we lost the game. We just didn't apply ourselves with the bat."
At the press conference, Vaughan went on to deny Zaheer's suggestion that the close fielders had been throwing sweets from behind the stumps. According to England's version of the story, "two jelly beans were left on the floor by the stumps during the drinks interval when the wicket fell".
Vaughan added: "I guess one of the guys might have left them as a prank for the new batsmen. If that offended Zaheer, I apologise. But we weren't throwing jelly beans from the slip cordon.
"The game was played in a tough manner, and there were probably instances that may have gone over the line."
By Tuesday, India were full of beans as they cruised to a seven-wicket victory to take a 1-0 lead in the three-Test Pataudi Trophy series.
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