England coach Andy Flower feels Australia captain Ricky Ponting has "made a meal" of perceived stalling tactics.

Ponting was left less than impressed by England's decision to send on 12th man Bilal Shafayat twice in the closing stages at Cardiff, as well as physio Steve McCaig, describing the approach as "pretty ordinary".

Flower, however, defended England's position, claiming the incidents were all about communication with the batsmen, rather than any deliberate ploy or ungentlemanly conduct.

"Ricky Ponting has got his own opinion, and I respect his opinion. He is a very good cricketer and has been a very good ambassador for Australia but, in this instance, I think he has made a meal of it," said Flower.

"I am a little surprised at all the hullabaloo over it, to be honest.

Hauritz plays down England rift 

"From my own perspective, in that last hour of the game, there was no time wasting by us. Have a look at the footage yourself. Never did we consciously try to waste time. Those guys were in such a focus.

"Most teams in those situations, you have batsmen talking in the middle for extended periods, knocking down the pitch, changing gloves, getting drinks, which all waste time. At no stage in the last couple of hours did we do that.

"There was perceived confusion out in the middle about what time the game was going to end.

"We needed to get messages out to them to make sure they were clear.

"We have not got walkie-talkies to those guys out there and the only way to communicate is to send people out.

"We did that, right at the end."

Flower added: "We play the game in the right way.

"In the last few years we have got the ICC (International Cricket Council) Fair Play Award twice, which is more than a lot of sides, so I would say let's keep it all in perspective and not deflect attention from a very good rearguard action.

"That was a good battle out there, and the sort of attention which has been paid to this, I do not like it."

Messages encouraging the 'spirit of cricket' have been placed all around Lord's, with slogans such as 'play hard, play fair' and 'let cricket do the talking'.

Flower, though, feels things must not continue to get blown out of proportion.

Ponting draws on positives

"There was a slight incident at the end of the game but in the main it was played in good spirit," he said.

"Some of the incidents you have mentioned are things which happen in cricket. We are not seizing on them for anything.

"The same should be for some of the incidents which have been seized upon here."

The manner in which England recovered to battle to a draw, having seen Australia post a commanding 674 for six declared in their first innings, will give the hosts plenty of reasons to be positive this week.

"They outplayed us, but we did brilliantly to hang on and only lose seven wickets on that last day on a fifth-day pitch. I thought it was a great effort," said Flower.

"Yes, we were outplayed, but we take a bit of confidence from the fight we showed.

"It is good to have that experience for our boys and they will be better for it going into the second Test."

Flower said: "With Fred and his injury record, we are always concerned, because his body is in that sort of state at this time of his career when he seems vulnerable a lot of the time.

"We cannot get away from that - but he is a hell of a player and we want him in our side when he is fit."