Yuvraj Singh has laughed off Kevin Pietersen's claims that he is a "pie-chucker".

The India all-rounder was given the label after he was brought on to bowl at Pietersen, with whom he has frequently been involved in verbal altercations. Pietersen won the battle yesterday, hitting 144 and dismissing Yuvraj's bowling as "left-arm filth".

"He's got me out a couple of times and I'm his so-called bunny but he's not good enough to call anyone his bunny," Pietersen said. "I'd rather face a pie-chucker like him all day than Zaheer Khan with the new ball."

But Yuvraj had the last laugh today, hitting an unbeaten 39 off 40 balls to guide India into a 285-run lead on the fourth day of the final Test. Yuvraj walked into the press conference announcing: "Relax, the pie-chucker is here", and said: "When I woke up this morning and saw the paper I asked what it meant.

"They told me it meant I was a useless kind of a bowler so it shows KP hates getting out to me - getting out to a useless bowler five times is quite useless batting, I would say.

"But he's a phenomenal player and batted like a champion. If you see his record he's got 15 hundreds in 48 Test matches and that's a phenomenal record.

"He tried to get under my skin in the last game and that brought out the best in me and I tried the same and I brought out the best in him. There's good competition on the field but I don't have a habit of washing dirty linen away from the field or in public, but I like that name!"

"Sometimes it fires you up and sometimes it backfires. Whenever you hear all the chat it makes me stronger and more focused and really helps me.

"Myself and KP are good friends off the field but on the field I'm not there to make friends because we're playing for our countries. There's healthy competition out there, there's no bad-mouthing."

Asked what he thought of Pietersen's off-spin bowling, which he has been unable to demonstrate during this series because of a rib injury, Yuvraj was equally happy to taunt his big rival.

"I've got a better action," he said. "His action is useless, but if he works hard on his bowling he can be a good bowler - I'll give him some tips if he comes to me, I'll tell him how to bowl in the rough."