The England captain Nasser Hussain came to the defence of all-rounder Andrew Flintoff after two bad-tempered exchanges during England's four-wicket defeat by India.

The umpire spoke to Flintoff after he had words with Virender Sehwag, who had just snicked him to the third man boundary.

"I've been absolutely chuffed with Flintoff on this tour," Hussain said. "His attitude has been magnificent - he was absolutely knackered towards the end there.

"At one point I saw him have a word and I just went up to him and told him he was probably on his last warning, and told him no more of that and he said I was right and that was that."

India's acting skipper Anil Kumble agreed with Hussain. "I don't think there was too much aggression out there, it was normal for a one-day international," he said.

Meanwhile Hussain offered no excuses for England's defeat. "We had the best of the conditions and we just kept losing wickets," he said. "There's a little bit more bounce in this wicket and those of us who have been here a long time and are used to the low wickets, it caught some of us by surprise but it was still a 250 wicket batting first.

"In all three games we've competed, but to bat like we did today wasn't quite good enough. You learn more from your losses than your victories so we have to learn what we did wrong and try and put it right.

"We don't let our heads drop, we always stick in. Just because we did one of our disciplines averagely, it doesn't mean the other two have to fall apart and we just give up."