Agence France Presse

Napier, March 1,

New Zealand and South African cricket skippers will be warned to end their sledging battle, match referee Gundappa Viswanath of India said on Monday.

The two sides meet here on Tuesday in the sixth and last one day cricket match in a series New Zealand has already won 4-1. New Zealand’s Stephen Fleming and South Africa’s Graeme Smith on Sunday indulged in a prolonged verbal exchange and Brendon McCullum and Jacques Kallis had to be separated after clashing mid-pitch.

Viswanath took no action after umpires Russell Tiffin and Doug Cowie assured him no one took it too far. However Viswanath said he would speak to both captains before the toss.

“I will remind them what we discussed at the pre-series meeting. Yesterday there were a couple of incidents and I don’t want it to get out of hand,” Viswanath told reporters. “I’ll just mention it, there’s still a lot of cricket left in the series.” New Zealand coach John Bracewell defended Fleming, suggesting he was sticking up for McCullum and Kyle Mills, who has clashed with Smith throughout the series.

“I quite like the way they’re not allowing themselves to be bullied, and I like the way their team mates went in there and helped them out,” Bracewell said.

“The South Africans learned the trick from the Australians but I don’t think they’re as good at it.

“We’re very aware of it, under pressure with their backs to the wall, people will try those things. The Australians do it by nature, they do it before they’ve started losing.” South Africa coach Eric Simons said he was disappointed with the Fleming-Smith clash.

“There’s needle out there but it wasn’t necessary perhaps,” Simons said, adding there was

no lingering animosity between the sides.