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Australia captain Ricky Ponting blasted England's gamesmanship after they left Cardiff with a nailbiting draw in the first Ashes Test.

Although he insisted it would be forgotten as the tourists head for the second Test at Lord's, Ponting was incensed by England's time-wasting tactics with last-pair James Anderson and Monty Panesar at the crease.

Twice during a 69-ball stand of defiance, England 12th man Bilal Shafayat ran onto the field to offer Anderson batting gloves while physio Steve McCaig was ushered off by the disgruntled Australians on the second occasion.

After England secured a first Test stalemate at 6.41pm on the final evening, just 13 runs in front with one wicket intact, Ponting said: "I don't think that was required.

"He had changed his gloves the over before and his glove is not going to be too sweaty in one over.

"I am not sure what the physio was doing out there - I didn't see him call for any physio to come out. As far as I am concerned it was pretty ordinary, actually.

"They can play whatever way they want to play. We have come to play by the rules and the spirit of the game, and it is up to them to do what they want to do."

No further action will be taken it appears but there will need to be some peace deals made if the series is to maintain respectable relations between the Ashes rivals.

Unhappy

"I was unhappy with it but I don't want to make that big a deal about it," he said.

"I am sure others will be taking it up with the England hierarchy as they should. But it is not the reason we didn't win. I won't think about it again when we leave here."

Two other conflicts earlier in the day suggested things were on the verge of boiling over.

In the warm-ups, Kevin Pietersen and Mitchell Johnson got in a heated exchange and Stuart Broad and Peter Siddle were involved in an on-field altercation.

However, Ponting played down the significance of each exchange.

Of the pre-play clash, he said: "It was a case of few guys on the ground taking each others' space."

Umpire Billy Doctrove addressed the physical contact, which occurred when Broad was running past bowler Siddle.

"He handled it and got on top of it pretty quickly," Ponting said. "I don't think it was that significant and if there had been anything in it I would have been spoken to on the field.

"It was probably accidental. Move on. It was a great game of cricket and we should be remembering that."

Paul Collingwood's gritty 74, which spanned close to six hours, proved the cornerstone of England's rearguard and somehow dragged the hosts to the brink of salvation from 70 to five, requiring 239 runs to make Australia bat again.

"He deserves a pat on the back. Without his innings England would have been in a whole lot of trouble," Ponting reflected.

Ponting's counterpart Strauss agreed and added: "There was a huge amount of relief in the dressing room and a lot of pride in how those guys played and how Colly, Graeme Swann and 'Fred' (Andrew Flintoff) played - the second half of the order really stood up to be counted," admitted Strauss.

"There is a lot of pride in what they achieved, but more than anything there was relief in getting through the game and we're still 0-0 going into the Lord's Test match.

"We are relieved we came away with a draw, but we're not going to pretend we're happy with the way we performed this week. We were down on where we needed to be and Australia showed us they're going to be a tough nut to crack and we need to get better."