Tim Nielsen contradicted Ricky Ponting's logics behind not bowling Brett Lee in the first session on day four of the Mohali Test.

Lee, a pale shadow of himself in the series so far, was fuming in the field as Ponting pressed in service change bowler Mitchell Johnson, debutant Peter Siddle, rookie spinner Cameron white and even part-time medium pacer Michael Hussey.

Both the captain and his pace spearhead had an animated discussion but Ponting later claimed Australia were lagging five overs behind in the over-rate and hence he wanted to rush through things.

Nielsen, however, contradicted Ponting's over-rate claims and said, "We changed things around because things weren't working for us." "The over-rate wasn't crazily out of control: three down at the time. In the end it was a tactical decision," Nielsen was quoted as saying.

The incident didn't escape the eyes of the Australian media either but Ponting insisted that there was no rift between him and Lee.

"I want to clarify something. Certain people are trying to make more than what it was and I can tell you that there is nothing between me and Brett," Ponting had said at Mohali.

"The Indians were scoring freely and we wanted to take the pace off the ball to make it difficult for them. Besides, we were down by five overs in the over-rate. So Hussey was bowled, something you don't see too often in Test cricket," Ponting said.