It took a 700-dollar dinner of lobster and fish at a trendy North Sydney restaurant for Umar Gul to regain his lost form. The lanky pacer, who flopped in New Zealand before being dropped for the first Test in Melbourne, took three key wickets in the second Test against Australia here to bring Pakistan within sights of a series-equalling victory on Tuesday. Gul’s performance was in contrast to his first day outing on a greener and juicier SCG wicket when he just took the wicket of No 11 Doug Bollinger after fellow pacers Mohammad Asif (6-41) and Mohammad Sami (3-27) ripped through the Aussie batting to skittle them for just 127.
Following yet another below-par showing, there was even talk of axing Gul again to make place for young fast bowler Mohammad Aamer for the third and final Test in Hobart next week. Aamer, who is expected to be fit for the last Test, had to sit out in Sydney because of a groin problem. In fact, it was because Aamer’s exit that Gul was given a chance to play in the second Test. Gul said that he was bored of having the same meals everyday and decided to explore a sea food restaurant near the team hotel with Imran Farhat, the left-handed opener. “I decided to go and have something different and took Imran along,” said Gul. “We went to this sea food place and had an excellent dinner of lobster and fish.” In the end, the Pakistanis found out to their utter surprise that the dinner had cost them 700 Australian dollars (Rs52,000). “It was really expensive,” he said. When this correspondent said that it was worth it since it might have helped him get back his lost form, he smiled and responded “May be.”
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