It is usually an accident caused by the ball slipping from the bowler's hands at delivery, but they have been bowled deliberately, an act highly contrary to the Laws of Cricket and the sportsmanship expected of the players.
This type of delivery can result in injuries to the batsman, and the penalty is an immediate no-ball and, in Twenty20 and one-day matches, a free hit.
Repeated or deliberate cases may result in the bowler being barred from bowling again for the remainder of the innings (or match), as happened with Waqar Younis in the 2003 Cricket World Cup.
[citation needed] A bowler can legally target the batsman with a ball aimed at his head that bounces, called a bouncer.
[3] Shoaib Akhtar, Pakistani fast bowler, admitted that he bowled a beamer against Mahendra Singh Dhoni on purpose.