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With 34 wickets at 13.7, Australian seamer Josh Hazlewood is enjoying his best summer of cricket in nearly a decade, and New Zealand are paying the price.
Australia's clash with New Zealand in Christchurch brings down the curtain on a summer of cricket Josh Hazlewood must wish could last forever.
The 33-year-old seamer is in career-best form, as he proved again on Friday on the first day of the second Test.
Hazlewood was unplayable in stints at Hagley Oval, removing four of the top five Kiwi batters on his way to 5-31.
Daryl Mitchell was left dazed by his dismissal, staring into space after being squared up by an outswinger on a perfect length which he tickled behind.
He is far from the only batter to have been given no chance by a Hazlewood peach - the Tamworth-born seamer has 34 wickets at 13.7, numbers that put him in rarefied air.
A productive season has lowered his career average to 24.66, behind only Pat Cummins for active pace bowlers with a minimum of 2000 deliveries.
Hazlewood credited allrounders Mitch Marsh and Cam Green for his uptick in form, saying the pair protected him from long and painful "big days in the dirt".
"The Aussie wickets have definitely got more in them than they used to, and we've had a couple over here that have helped out as well," he said.
"But with the extra bowling in the team, you're a lot fresher coming back for your third and fourth spells.
"(I) might bowl 16 or 17 (overs in a day) rather than 20 to 23.
"When we had no allrounder, that fatigue starts to set in and it snowballs day to day, Test to Test.
"It also might help having a bowling captain who walks in the same shoes as you ... and who can wrap his head around that and dice up the bowling a little bit better, when to push and when to hold back."
Not since a 10-Test summer in 2016/17 has Hazlewood enjoyed a more fruitful season.
In New Zealand, he has dismissed all the Black Caps key bats - snaring Rachin Ravindra twice, Daryl Mitchell twice, Kane Williamson, Glenn Phillips and Tom Latham.
Hazlewood's dominance of Ravindra has been especially pronounced, provoking rash shots from the 24-year-old for a pair of cheap first-innings dismissals.
"Any good exciting player that comes in, they're going to score runs early and then bowling teams will find a way to try and expose their weaknesses," he said.
"That's what makes a great player - if they can combat that and come out the other side and build on their average ... then they become the Steve Smiths or the Kane Williamsons of the world."
