BRISBANE (Reuters)
New Zealand cricket captain Stephen Fleming defended himself against accusations by Australian vice-captain Adam Gilchrist that his team used negative tactics.

Gilchrist, who completed a century against New Zealand on Saturday's third day of the first Test, said the Kiwis had resorted to negative ploys in an attempt to slow down the match, already disrupted by rain.

But Fleming hit back, denying his team had played negatively and arguing that the conditions had made it impossible for his team to play any other way.

"I think he can pull his head in a little bit because the conditions obviously dictated a lot of the plays that we had to make," Fleming said. "The conditions were very tough. They cut down a lot of our options and we had to sit in."

New Zealand used only three fast bowlers, Chris Cairns, Dion Nash and Craig McMillan, for the latter half of Australia's first innings before they finally declared at 486 for 9 but Fleming said he had little choice.

Medium-pacer Shayne O'Connor left the field injured on Friday and New Zealand were unable to use left-arm spinner Daniel Vettori, while Fleming was forced to set a defensive field as Gilchrist went on the attack.

"It's very easy when things are going your way to say those sort of things," Fleming said. "He's an aggressive player and he's obviously playing shots on and off the field."

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