He was only being helpful

"We all felt rather aggrieved when our number eleven, who is a fine bowler - but a pretty hopeless batsman - played an unusually good defensive shot to their opening bowler, who had been put back on to polish off the tail. The ball dropped down by our man's feet and he very kindly picked it up and threw it back to the bowler. Someone appealed, and the umpire gave our batsman out. It didn't seem like fair play to us."

Thankfully this doesn't happen very often. But, once a batsman has played the ball, he should not make contact with it again with his bat or his person, unless in defence of his wicket, or with permission from the fielding side.

Incidentally, this unusual dismissal is now recorded as out - Handled the ball. This is a change introduced in the 2010 version of the laws


Read more about Law 33 (Handled the ball) at the MCC website