The Daily Telegraph reported that some fans taunted the Indian spinner by saying "show us your knot" and "get a haircut", in reference to his Sikh religion.

Fans seated in Bay 29 told The Daily Telegraph how Harbhajan repeatedly "looked up and spat at us" while patrolling the boundary. Witnesses said Harbhajan, who was called as an "obnoxious little weed" by Matthew Hayden last week, was retaliating to sustain crowd abuse during Australia's innings, the paper said.

"But there was no suggestion that Harbhajan had intended o spit on the hostile crowd. His actions were reported to be n act of defiance," it added.

Andrew Wilson and Darren Jones, who were among a group of 20 males from Newcastle wearing T-shirts carrying the words -- 'Monkey see... Monkey do' -- in reference to Harbhajan's alleged abuse of Andrew Symonds in January's Sydney Test, gave contrasting views on the Indian's gestures.

"He definitely spat in our direction - about six or seven times. It was deliberate because he turned away from the pitch, looked up and spat at us. He was copping a lot of abuse, but spitting is not on in my book. That's a bit out of line," Wilson said.

But Jones said Harbhajan's actions were within his rights. "We were giving it to him and he was giving it back.