BRISBANE, NOV 28: Saqlain Mushtaq and his mysterious doosra was countered by the Australian batsmen after they embarked on a plan to reduce the off-spinner's effectiveness to zilch on the final day of the Hobart, and in the Perth Test.Saqlain had caused a panic in Australian ranks when he took 6 for 46 in Australia's first innings in Hobart and showed his main weapon a variation on the latest development in spin bowling, a top-spinner which occasionally hits the seam and moves off the pitch in the opposite direction to an off-break.This ball is referred to by the Pakistan players as Saqlain's doosra (the second one). The Australians had studied videos of Saqlain before this series but still he caught them off guard in Hobart. This prompted an emergency team meeting of the Aussies.The meeting was mainly to get the players talking about it, said Australian coach John Buchanan. They came up with good ideas. A lot of it was about making sure you could get in for a while. Everyone felt that if you couldget in for a while, then you really began to read what was going on.``I think Saqlain got on a roll and got those wickets,'' Slater, one of the victims of that fine spell, was quoted in Australian media as saying.``I don't think we were as aware as we should have been going to the crease. All we spoke about it in the team meeting was being patient. We know he possesses this ball so be patient. Watch the ball closely,'' Slater said.While left handers Justin Langer and Adam Gilchritst did not require any major adjustments, Slater and some of the other right handers decided to move their guard across from leg stump or middle and leg to off stump, an unusual spot for batsmen to stand.This brought them closer to the line of top spinner, which, in the first innings, was pitched outside off and had them fishing for it outside the line of their bodies. Moving their stance more to the off brought their head and eyes closer to Saqlain's line.The danger with the new tactic was that a normal off-spinnercould come back in and trap them leg before. But Saqlain's off-spinner does not turn much. As long as the right handers were decisive in their foot work, their pads would be outside the line of the off-stump and they would be safe from leg before wicket decisions.``My adjustment was moving across between middle and off as my guard and just watching the ball,'' said Slater.Buchanan watched video footage of Saqlain's bowling especially some slow motion studies of his hand action on release. The footage was taken from behind and showed his hand and wrist and how that changed. ``There was certainly a discernable difference there,'' Buchanan said.
