Reversing Gul perplexes Vettori, Younis comes up with own spin!

Gul who was introduced as the sixth bowler in the 13th over went on to take five wickets conceding a mere six runs and later New Zealand skipper Daniel Vettori did not hide his amusement.

“I've never, ever seen someone reverse the ball after 12 overs,” said Vettori, a 13-year international veteran. “He managed to do that and that made a real difference,” he said.

Gul gave return ticket to Scott Styris and Peter McGlashan in the third and fourth balls of his first over, and then castled Nathan McCullum in his second over before dismissing James Franklin and Kyle Miss off successive balls to complete a remarkable five-wicket haul.

“He obviously bowled really well. He got the ball to reverse, and I don't think in the history of Twenty20 cricket anyone's got the ball to reverse. That made a massive difference today, and with his pace and his accuracy as well as the ball reversing he was a difficult proposition,” Vettori went on to explain.

“I really don't know (how). It's the first time I've ever seen it happen,” Vettori just could not stop mentioning about that spell.

“We wanted to exert pressure by scoring a good total. Unfortunately, we did not get that total. They bowled really well and put the ball in decent areas. It was incredibly difficult to defend a 100-run target,” he said. Naturally, there was all-round expectation of speaking to the protagonist in the post-match press-do, but, surprisingly, skipper Younis Khan addressed the media without man of the match Gul near him.

That Younis went on to give roundabout answers to queries pertaining Gul’s spell only intensified the mystery.

“The ball goes into the crowd and hits the walls and when it is back it is rough,” Younis offered. But the problem was that there was only one six in the entire innings that Styris managed to hit off Saeed Ajmal.

What made the comments all the more intriguing that South Afican pace bowler Wayne Parnell who took four wickets against the West Indies told media about how the lack of swing prompting him to shorten the length and hit the pitch.

Gul, meanwhile, admitted to getting reverse swing and credited it to watching the videos of legendary pace bowlers Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis.
Perhaps, that’s the cue to perfecting the art of reverse swing!