How Plan B worked for Ishant, Zaheer

8216;Wily8217; is generally a prefix used for spinners but the Indian pacemen could have been given that tag on Friday.

8216;Wily8217; is generally a prefix used for spinners but the Indian pacemen could have been given that tag on Friday. On a pitch where the ball wasn8217;t flying around and the Australian batsmen were threatening to amass a huge total, Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma opted for the unconventional. And with spinners Harbhajan Singh and Anil Kumble not effective on the reasonably true surface, it was the out-of-the-box thinking of the pacers that came to India8217;s rescue.

Ishant and Zaheer used different tactics to share nine wickets between them, the senior paceman picking up a five-wicket haul though his long-haired partner was without doubt the most effective bowler of the day.

The Delhi seamer started with a wicket in his second over, grazing Shane Watson8217;s off-stump. But it was during the 91-run stand between Michael Hussey and Brad Haddin that he realised this wasn8217;t a day when regular tactics would work 8212; and that8217;s when he started using the slower delivery.

Haddin was the first to get foxed when Ishant, who has consistently clocked in 140-kph range, rolled his fingers over the ball. The wicket-keeper batsman, forced to check his stroke at the last minute, hurled a simple catch to VVS Laxman at short cover. Test debutant Cameron White, too, couldn8217;t read the change of pace and spooned a catch to Harbhajan Singh.

With the tail-enders threatening to extend their stay after Brett Lee hit Harbhajan for a couple of fours, Zaheer was brought back into the attack. Using the old ball, he was now hiding the seam as he ran in to ball. Lee fell to a delivery that kept low and, soon after, Mitchel Johnson was foxed by a reverse-swinging ball that went through his bat and pad. The innings ended when Zaheer got rid of centurion Michael Hussey, again beaten by the reverse swing.