The man known in Australian circles as The Hoff, due to an ambling running style resembling the former Baywatch hero, must have looked more like something created in Victor Frankenstein’s laboratory to the Black Caps taking strike.
The 33-year-old right-armer hounded anything wielding willow.
Elements of Glenn McGrath’s needling and Curtly Ambrose’s bounce seemed to bind in a DNA double helix to create a metronomic figure who returned indomitable figures of 5-31 from 13.2 overs.
Hazlewood forced Tom Latham to nibble at a delivery from around the wicket; Kane Williamson was beaten lbw by a ball angling in; Daryl Mitchell was squared up to edge a snorter moving away off the seam; and Matt Henry snicked off the back foot to complete the side’s unravelling.
The inexcusable dismissal in the portfolio came via Rachin Ravindra. He looked to flay Hazlewood down the ground in an extravagant drive which lacked footwork and any sense of responsibility before lunch. The “c Khawaja b Hazlewood 4″ dismissal bore an air of déjà vu to the “c Lyon b Hazlewood 0″ from the first innings in Wellington. The world champion Australians don’t suddenly forget a weakness or a vice.
In other cases, New Zealand displayed all the application of a truant kicking a can down the road as they followed-on, so to speak, from humblings for 179 and 196 at the Basin Reserve.
The hosts’ shot selection, or lack thereof, was key as a mixture of ill-disciplined batting, poor defence and ruthless bowling took hold.
White-ball aggression appeared to usurp red-ball resilience at times against the clinical visitors. Tom Blundell and Glenn Phillips produced ditto moments off Cameron Green and Mitchell Starc respectively, gloving attempted pulls behind.
The shame of the contagion from 71-2 to 107-8 was that Will Young and Latham eked out an opening stand of 47. That sturdy contribution offered a false promise of what was to come.
