Hazlewood's mastery floors NZ at Hadlee's hometown

Josh Hazlewood received warm applause as he walked to fine leg after claiming Kane Williamson's wicket. Some of it was from the small number of fans wearing yellow shirts on the grass bank at Hagley Oval. But there were plenty of locals showing Hazlewood their appreciation too.

It was unusual to see an Australian get such an acknowledgement in New Zealand. But Christchurch is the home of Sir Richard Hadlee. New Zealand's greatest fast bowler was there on day one, sitting in the Hagley Oval pavilion named in his family's honour. The indoor sports centre out the back is named specifically after Sir Richard alone.

Christchurch cricket fans know what great fast bowling looks like. And what Hazlewood produced on day one was Hadlee-esque. He was metronomic, masterful, and relentless. He operated with surgical precision to claim 5 for 31 from 13.5 overs as New Zealand were cleaned up for 162.

Hazlewood has sometimes been the forgotten man of Australia's big three quicks. He was the last to get to 250 Test wickets. He isn't the captain nor is he breaking the bank at the IPL despite being the best T20 bowler of the three in recent years.

He has also been forgotten in recent years because he has been absent for long periods. Between February 2021 and June 2023, Hazlewood played just four of Australia's 20 Tests due to a spate of injuries. He had opened the door for Scott Boland to come barreling through.

But since returning during the Ashes in 2023, Hazlewood has missed just one Test. The incredible durability of Australia's three fast bowlers over the summer has been noted this week with all three playing seven Tests in a row. And in those seven Tests, it is Hazlewood who has been the star. He has bowled the most overs of the trio, the most maidens, and taken the most wickets, 34 at a staggering average of 13.70, with the best strike-rate and the best economy rate.

Hagley Oval was simply a continuation of what he had been doing all summer, asking Test batters to survive the sternest of fast bowling examinations.

In his second over of the day, he beat Will Young three consecutive times. He would later beat Tom Latham too. But his first spell of five overs went unrewarded despite some cracking deliveries as Latham and Young cruised to 47 without loss.

He made a slight adjustment in his second spell. Back of a length had been profitable at the Basin Reserve in Wellington due to the excessive bounce. But Hagley's surface was far more even. Hazlewood pushed his length a metre fuller and pocketed the Black Caps' best four batters as a result with some world-class bowling.

Latham had looked impenetrable. Mitchell Starc has been one of his chief tormentors in Test cricket and Latham played him with ease on his way to 38. Hazlewood changed the angle and went around the wicket. The first two balls were angled in. One was worked leg side. The next was just wide enough to leave but veering back enough to make Latham doubt whether he should have played. The next ball was fuller and angled into off. Latham had to play. It nipped away a fraction to scratch the edge.

Hazlewood's sequencing to Rachin Ravindra was even better. From around the wicket he delivered eight balls to Ravindra. Four angled into the top of off and asked for tight forward defensive strokes. Two were pushed wide deliberately but not at a half-volley length. Ravindra has been driving on line, not length, this summer, usually a dangerous game against Hazlewood. He played and missed at the first wide one but made contact with the second, nicking it to Usman Khawaja at first slip on the stroke of lunch.

Daryl Mitchell has the game to handle high-class seam bowling, as evidenced by three Test hundreds in England against James Anderson and Stuart Broad. But Hazlewood worked him over. He kept up his full length and Mitchell countered, stepping out his crease to drive superbly down the ground. Hazlewood dragged his length back immediately. He first nipped one in to hit Mitchell on the inner thigh guard. He nipped the next away from the same spot to catch the outside edge and leave Mitchell in disbelief.

Eight balls later Hazlewood bagged the big scalp of Williamson. Where Mitchell had been batting out of his crease to disrupt Hazlewood's lengths, Williamson hung back to sweat on anything underpitched. Hazlewood went full, seaming it in to trap New Zealand's greatest batter plumb lbw.

New Zealand had slumped from 61 for 1 to 84 for 5. Starc then chimed in with two wickets in two balls to move past Dennis Lillee on Australia's all-time wicket-takers list, but it was Hazlewood who deserved all the plaudits.

He richly deserved a fifth wicket and was finally rewarded with the last of the innings when Cameron Green was the only man in Christchurch to hear a tiny nick off Matt Henry's bat and convinced Pat Cummins to review after umpire Nitin Menon had also missed it.

Hazlewood's Test bowling average has dipped below 25. It's not quite in Hadlee's class, but for an hour at Hagley Oval he was, and Hadlee's hometown appreciated it.