Ben Stokes has told a jury he "stepped in" after hearing homophobic abuse shouted at a gay couple.
The England cricketer is accused of affray following an incident outside a Bristol nightclub during the early hours of 25 September last year.
The 27-year-old told a court on Thursday he challenged Ryan Ali and Ryan Hale after hearing them direct homophobic abuse at Kai Barry and William O'Connor.
Asked about the exact phrase he used, Stokes told Bristol Crown Court: "You shouldn't be taking the piss because they are gay."
He added: "I was told by Mr Ali along the lines of 'Shut the f*** up or I'll bottle you'."
Stokes, who played in England's one-day victory over the West Indies the evening before the incident, said he "took the decision to get involved" after he saw Ali swing a bottle and hit one of Mr Barry and Mr O'Connor.
He said: "I remember taking a swing at Mr Ali. I just remember [him] just coming towards me and I remember tussling around with him, I eventually fell to the floor."
Stokes told a jury he "was trying to stop Mr Ali doing damage to anybody with a glass bottle" and that he took a decision to act "very quickly".
He feared "other people could be a target of either of these two men" and he "felt under threat by these two and felt I had to do whatever it was to keep myself and others around me safe".
Stokes told the court he wasn't drunk on the night in question.
He said he drank two or three pints of lager during a meal with his wife and other players and their partners, before drinking five or six vodka and lemonades in the Mbargo nightclub and then "more than one" of the same drink in another bar.
Stokes denied mimicking Mr O'Connor and Mr Barry and said an exchange between them was about what he was wearing and was "absolutely not" homophobic.
He added he didn't remember "flicking a cigarette towards anyone" but, commenting on a CCTV clip shown to the jury, that "obviously, it looks like I have thrown something in the direction" of Mr O'Connor and Mr Barry.
Gordon Cole QC, defending Stokes, asked the cricketer: "At any stage had you become enraged for any reason at all in the incident you had been involved with, from leaving Mbargo?"
Stokes replied: "I find it a difficult question to answer."
Police earlier released footage of Stokes' arrest, as well as injuries sustained by Mr Hale and Ali.
Stokes explained, after his arrest, he tried to instruct his England teammate Alex Hales to "leave and get out of here".
"I am simply telling him that he doesn't need to be here and go because I was the one sat in the police car in handcuffs," he said, in reference to the footage.
The court heard from Stokes after judge Peter Blair directed the jury to find co-accused Mr Hale not guilty of affray following legal submissions.
In a police interview played to the jury, former soldier Mr Hale, 27, claimed the attack on him by Stokes "could have killed me".
He told officers that the incident – in which Stokes allegedly knocked him out – had left him with a "constant" headache that he would probably have to "go and get checked out again".
"Watching the video was shocking," he said.
"I'm a dad. He could have killed me. I don't know why he didn't stop. You hear about it all the time – he could have.
"Just the way he was acting in the video, he could have beaten the living hell out of me.
"It's shocking to see someone doing that to someone who didn't do anything wrong. It's quite shocking to think that I've been put in a situation like that."
Mr Hale told the court he did not recognise Stokes, or Mr Hales, nor was he aware the national cricket team were in the city.
He said he had been "smashed in the face" as he tried to tell Stokes to stop attacking Ali, who he said was a close friend.
Mr Hale added that he had never known Ali, 28, to be in a fight.
"I was in the army and I know what reasonable force is," he said. "I was the innocent bystander, getting attacked for nothing."
Stokes, of Stockton Road, Castle Eden, Durham; and Ali, of Forest Road, Bristol, each deny a joint charge of affray.
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Mr Hales was never arrested in relation to the incident.
The trial continues.
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