England desperate to finish on high note – Bell

Ian Bell was shocked to hear his Warwickshire and England team-mate had got into a confrontation with Pakistan's perennial NatWest Series reserve shortly before the start of Monday's match.

He was more pleasantly surprised when he saw Trott shortly afterwards, because there was no indication in his friend's behaviour that anything unsavoury had taken place.

Bell said: "Things like this can be hard to get over, but when I saw Trotty he acted as if nothing had happened and he'd dealt with it. We just got on with our warm-ups and trying to win the game."

The incident was brought to the attention of match referee Jeff Crowe, who declared it closed and that the match – which had previously been in jeopardy for several hours owing to the counter-claims of Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Ijaz Butt during the spot-fixing crisis – could begin on time after all.

Bell remains confident relations between the two teams have not been irrevocably strained.

He has been absent during much of the controversy of the past three weeks, having missed the Lord's Test and most of the limited-overs fixtures against Pakistan too while recovering from a broken toe.

But Bell, recalled for Monday's 38-run series-levelling defeat and in the frame for today's decider at the Rose Bowl, reports England's morale is impressively intact.

"Without a shadow of a doubt, this team would never leave someone to battle on their own – and no England team I've ever been involved in would do that," he said.

"This incident has brought the guys closer together, and we hope that will help us in the future – because the Australia tour will be tough.

"If we can get through things like this as a team it is something to move on from."

Trott has been portrayed variously as an insular, intense or potentially volatile personality.

Bell said: "Trotty is a good friend and someone I've played a lot of cricket with.

"He is a positive character and has a lot of belief in his ability to play cricket and he is incredibly passionate which comes out at times.

"He is a cricket lover and is committed to both Warwickshire and England in everything he does. He wears his heart on his sleeve, and that is the kind of guy he is.

"I was a little bit surprised that he got into a confrontation like this. But he is massively passionate, and there have been those issues.

"I don't really know what happened here. All I know is it has been dealt with."

Bell took issue with reports that the teams did not shake hands on Monday night.

"A load of us went and shook hands with them in the Long Room," he said.

"I know for a fact that – bar the batters, who walked off – most of the players shook hands in the pavilion.

"As far as I was concerned, it was a regulation end to the game and we all move on."

He expects another hard but fair contest today.

"I think it will be just two competitive teams striving to win.

"It is a huge game now, and our guys are desperate to win the match. We'll leave the rest up to the ECB.

"I'm sure we'll be ready to go to finish the summer on a high.

"We have to put in a massive performance to try to secure this series win now.

"It is a final for us. When the big games come up England are often at their best, just like in the Twenty20 World Cup, so let's hope that is the case here."

More important still, of course, is that the match is played free of any suggestion of corruption by any party and Bell has no doubts about his team-mates on that score. He added: "We need to be as tough on anyone involved in that stuff as we possibly can be.

"The current England team are involved in playing the game the right way, and that is how we want to continue playing the game.

"We would hope no-one in England is involved in the things that have been going on, and we're just keen to play and win as much cricket as possible.

"There are no thoughts in our dressing room of doing anything untoward, and I'm confident of that."

Shahid Afridi offered a different perspective over the confrontation between Trott and Riaz in the Lord's nets by claiming Pakistan could have called the police, alleging Riaz was hit in the face with a cricket pad.

"But we showed a big heart and did not press for it," said Afridi.

An England and Wales Cricket Board spokesman declined to revisit the specifics of the bust-up described by home board chief executive David Collier as "regrettable" but "fairly minor in nature".

Veteran fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar will be fit for today's finale, despite the side injury which appeared to trouble him at Lord's.