Vaughan: I thought I was helping

Michael Vaughan claims England were disappointed with the sportsmanship of the Indians in appealing for his wicket after he handled the ball in the final Test in Bangalore today.

Attempting a sweep, the Yorkshire batsman failed to connect with a Sarandeep Singh delivery.

And when the ball trickled off his pads and arm and underneath his body, he instinctively grabbed it with his right hand and brushed it towards short leg.

Virender Sehwag, fielding in that position, appealed and umpire A.V.Jayaprakash gave Vaughan - who had made an attractive 64 - out handled the ball, only the seventh player to be dismissed so in Test history.

While the former England A captain admitted he was out by law 33 of the game, he insisted the ball was not going to hit the stumps.

"There was no way it would have hit the stumps and I just thought it was the right thing to do, to flick the ball to the short leg and help him out so we could get on with the game," said Vaughan.

"I was just disappointed that one of their players appealed, although I accept that the umpire had to give me out by the laws of the game."

Vaughan exchanged words with Mark Ramprakash, with whom he had shared in a century stand in England's 255 for six, to ask his advice on whether he could appeal against the decision before trudging off.

"I was bemused by the whole situation and I didn't quite know what to do," he said.

"Maybe they will look back and think they shouldn't have appealed, but that's hindsight."

Vaughan spoke to Nasser Hussain and other players in the dressing room and he added: "They were as disappointed as I was, but it has happened and we have to get on with things."

Match referee Denis Lindsay confirmed, meanwhile, that no England official had approached him about the incident.