Roundup: Teammate denies hearing death threat aimed at killed cricketer Phil Hughes

The final batting partner of Phil Hughes - the Australian cricket player who was killed two years ago when a ball fatally struck his neck - has on Tuesday denied an opposing player threatened to "kill" him with a ball during play.

Tom Cooper, who was batting for South Australia on Nov. 25, 2014 when Hughes was struck, said while there was a "noticeable" increase in the number of short ball bowled at the 25-year-old, he did not hear the reported "I'm going to kill you" sledge from one of the opposition bowlers.

Cooper faced the coronial inquest into Hughes' death on Tuesday and insisted that while more short balls were aimed at the talented batsman's head, there didn't seem to be any malice behind the barrage.

"(Hughes) had obviously been batting for quite a while, he was scoring runs at will, pretty much. (Bowling short balls) was obviously a tactic to stop that from happening," Cooper told the coronial inquest on Tuesday.

"The tactic was used against him but it wasn't for any other reason than to stop the run rate."

Cooper said he did not hear the reported sledge which was brought up during the inquest on Monday; it was alleged that New South Wales bowler Doug Bollinger said "I'm going to kill you" to Hughes while he was facing Bollinger's deliveries.

"If he had said that I would have remembered it," Cooper said, "I am confident it didn't happen."

But Hughes' brother Jason, through the family's lawyer, told the inquest that Cooper had previously told the family that the sledge had been aimed at Hughes at one point during the match.

Later on Tuesday, Ash Burrow, one of the umpires from the match, told the inquest that sledges are an ingrained part of playing cricket and added that it was "not unusual" for good batsmen to be peppered with short balls.

He said it was a commonly-used tactic to unsettle and dismiss a 'set' batsmen, while his colleague Mike Graham-Smith said he felt no need to limit the bowlers from bowling short-pitched deliveries during the match.

"I have never applied (the rule) to top-order first-class batsmen," he told the inquest.

Earlier in the inquest, New South Wales captain on the day, wicketkeeper Brad Haddin said the match was played in a "good spirit" and wasn't different from the competitive sledging found on any other cricket field around the world.

"The game was played in a good spirit. It was just a normal game of cricket," Haddin said.

Meanwhile Bollinger told the inquest on Monday: "I know in my heart I didn't say (the sledge)."

Despite the allegations, the ball which struck Hughes was bowled by Sean Abbott, a fellow quick bowler from New South Wales - not Bollinger.

The inquest into Hughes' death will continue until Friday, and will take further testimony from teammates, opponents, umpires and emergency response workers.

Hughes died in hospital two days after he was struck by the ball after the neck injury caused a hemorrhage in his brain. Endit