England coach Trevor Bayliss on Friday dismissed Australia’s ball-tampering allegations as “beat-up” claims and “pommie bashing”.

James Anderson sinking his fingernail into the ball raised a few eyebrows on the fourth day of the fourth Ashes Test in Melbourne. In the 12th over, bowled by Chris Woakes, he was seen rubbing the quarter-seam of the ball with his left thumb.

“I’m not sure you are allowed to use your fingernail there,” Shane Warne, part of Channel Nine’s commentary team, said on-air.

“If you are going to touch the ball at all, it’s not just shining it, you want to do it right in front of the umpire so they know there is nothing untoward going on.”

His co-commentator, Michael Slater, added, “That’s interesting, you can’t get your nail into the ball. That’s a no-no.”

Former cricketer Michael Hussey told cricket.com.au that the English fast-bowler could face punishment for his action.

Match referee Ranjan Madugalle, however, clarified after the day’s play there would be no report into the allegations. But a ESPNcricinfo report claimed that “both sides were spoken to about the tactic of scuffing the ball on the wicket ends”.

“It’s a beat-up,” Bayliss said. “As soon as I saw the headlines I raced into the umpires [room] and that was their words: ‘Nothing to worry about, it was a beat-up, absolutely fine’.

“The umpires spoke to both captains during this game about throwing the ball into rough areas.”

“Every team in the world does that and obviously the umpires don’t want it to go overboard and both teams have taken it on board.”

“I did see the footage and if [Anderson] was trying to scratch it then he was scratching the wrong [shiny] side for it to go reverse. I’m quite sure that wasn’t the case.”

When the umpires called off play after persistent rain, Australia were 103 for two and trailing by 61 runs with a day remaining.

(with inputs from AFP)