The Australian media went into whingeing hyperdrive yesterday after their bowlers failed to dismiss England in the first npower Test in Cardiff.

The home side were accused of “appalling cynicism” for their delaying tactics and the newspapers gleefully seized on the suggestion by Ricky Ponting, the Australia captain, that England had broken the spirit of the game.

However, the ICC will not sanction England for the time-wasting near the end of the match on Sunday, when the twelfth man was twice sent on to the field with new gloves for the batsmen and the physiotherapist came on for what was felt to be spurious reasons.

Law 42.10 deals with batsmen wasting time and allows the umpires to give a first and final warning before applying penalty runs for future breaches. No warning was given by Aleem Dar or Billy Doctrove, the umpires, nor did they mention it in their post-match report.

“The umpires have the authority to make a report to the match referee if they have seen a breach of the Laws or the Code of Conduct,” the ICC said. “In this instance, they did not, so no further action will be taken.”

That did not stop newspapers such as The Australian from running a headline saying “Strauss falls short in spirit of game”.

However, Robert Craddock, in The Courier Mail, warned Ponting not to let England get under his skin, as he had in 2005. “The worry is England's gamesmanship will see Australia engulfed by the type of siege mentality that undermined their last Ashes tour,” he wrote.

Some could argue that little sympathy is owed to Australia for not having enough time to bowl out England. In recent times, Ponting has often failed to get his bowlers through their overs quickly. Australia have been fined 33 times for slow play since 1995: 20 of them under Ponting's captaincy and nine times since the start of 2008.

Australia were fined six times, costing A$123,000 (now about £59,000), in four Tests and two one-day internationals in 2008. They have infringed twice more in 2009, most recently in the World Twenty20 defeat by Sri Lanka.

While the wailing and moaning continues Down Under, Nathan Hauritz, the Australia off spinner, tried to pour oil on the troubled waters yesterday by admitting that he would have done the same as England in the same position.

“I wouldn't be facing up as quickly every ball,” he said. “It's an extremely nervous situation and that one wicket determines the 1-0 or 0-0 scoreline. They did their job.”

Asked if England had breached the spirit of cricket, he said: “Definitely not. At the end of the day they had to survive for the last 60-odd balls and they faced out the overs. People could say we were rushing through our overs to get more at them. So I don't think anything has been made out of it by us; it's dead and buried.”

Paul Collingwood, whose six-hour innings of 74 helped to take England towards safety, also denied his team had gone too far. “It is always frustrating for the fielding side and we've been in those situations ourselves,” he said. “Just recently in the West Indies, at Antigua and Trinidad, we had something similar and it is frustrating when you can't get the tailenders out.

“I know how he [Ponting] feels and in those situations the emotions are running high after the game, but we just wanted to get the message right for the guys in the middle. We wanted them to know it was all about time.

“We've received the spirit of cricket award from the ICC a couple of times recently and we're happy with the way we play the game.”

Time-wasting by a team under the cosh is nothing new in cricket

As England built a big lead on the fourth day of the third Test at Old Trafford in 2005, Australia tried to curtail their efforts by wasting time resetting fields. Steve Bucknor, the umpire, was seen tapping his watch and warning Ricky Ponting that it had gone too far.

West Indies batsmen went to extreme lengths to draw a Test against South Africa in Barbados in 2001. In the final half-hour only three overs were bowled, South Africa having bowled 15 in the previous 40 minutes. Dinanath Ramnarine was given an official warning, again by Bucknor, for walking the length of the pitch between balls and, oddly, receiving a medical spray on his shoe rather than his skin. The batsmen were reprimanded by their board.

New Zealand accused England of gamesmanship during a rain-affected one-day international at Edgbaston in 2008. England bowled 19 overs in 82 minutes and play was halted with New Zealand one over away from the match being decided under the Duckworth-Lewis method. The referee declined to punish England.

In 1967, Brian Close was stripped of the England captaincy after wasting time in a county match. He was captaining Yorkshire against Warwickshire and let his side bowl only 24 overs in 100 minutes - two in the last 15. The match ended with Warwickshire nine runs from victory.

Words by Patrick Kidd