A small practical joke the English cricketers played upon Zaheer Khan – who said he felt "insulted" – fired the Indian pace bowler in the second innings in which he took five wickets.
The incident happened when Zaheer went into bat when India were placed at 464 for six in their first innings on the third day on Sunday. The whole episode infuriated him so much that he went up to Kevin Pietersen at gully brandishing his bat.
"As you all know there was some incident happened on the field, while I was batting. There was some jelly bean at the crease while I was batting and I chucked one off the wicket. When I faced the next ball there were again some jelly-beans on the wicket, so obviously someone was chucking them from behind. I didn't like, and I went up to them and told them 'Guys what is this all about, I am here to play cricket.' They came at me and I was upset about it and I just reacted accordingly," he said. The fielder standing closest to Zaheer was Alistair Cook at short leg, but the southpaw vented his anger at Pietersen.        
"I did not know exactly where it was coming from, may be I picked the wrong one (Pietersen). But I just was not bothered at that time; I felt it was insulting.
“Though I was not sure where it was coming from, but definitely it might have come from a fielder because when I removed it, it should not have come there again. But it came there again and I could not take it," he explained.   But the episode did not stop him from enjoying the five-for feat. "This has been a superb spell for me, and I really enjoyed bowling it. We are here to play cricket and that is what we are looking forward to do in the whole series. I really do not want to go into it (jelly-bean issue), I am here to play cricket and I and the team are enjoying playing it," he said.
The Mumbaikar also extended support to his colleague S Sreesanth, who is having a torrid time in this series. "It happens at times. We are playing at the highest level. You know we play with such passion and sometimes we lose control over it.
“I don't think Sreesanth has done anything wrong. The beamer was not certainly intentional. I would back Sreesanth any day. He has always been hyper-active and that is the good thing about him, isn't it?
“If you saw his spell at the Wanderers, probably, that hyper-activeness might have helped him and which is a good thing for the team."