Gul's magical spell against Kiwis sparks-off ball tampering controversy

London, June 15 (ANI): Umar Gul's stupendous display of swing bowling in the ICC Twenty20 World Championship match against New Zealand may have earned him a lot of praise, but it has also sparked-off a fresh controversy regarding ball tampering.

Gul's fiery spell of 5-6 in the Super Eight match against the Kiwis helped Pakistan win the game by six wickets, but now, questions are being raised over his ability to reverse swing the ball just after 12 overs.

New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori had raised the issue at a post-match press conference at The Oval, saying he had never seen the white cricket ball 'reverse-swing' just after 12 overs.

"I've never, ever seen someone reverse the ball after 12 overs," said Vettori.He (Gul) managed to do that and that made a real difference," Vettori said.

Now, it has been learnt that Vettori has lodged a complaint with ICC match referee, Ranjan Madugalle, and requested him to initiate an inquiry.

Madugalle, however, turned down Vettori's request, saying there was o evidence of ball tampering.

Pakistan captain Younis Khan has played down the entire controversy.

"Gul has a perfect action for reverse swing.He also has enough pace and can get the ball to reverse-swing very effectively," Khan said at a post-match press conference.

Gul himself is not perturbed by the issue.

Crediting his match-winning performance to former fast bowlers' Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis, Gul said he wanted to become the leading wicket taker in the tournament.

"In T20, you have to be able to bowl the yorker, bouncer and the slower ball. Now, I want to be the highest wicket-taker in the tournament. My captain just told me to go and get wickets, and that's what I did," The News quoted Gul, as saying. (ANI)