Hazlewood learns from Ashes lesson

In the aftermath of Australia’s Ashes loss, and more pointedly because of that two hours of carnage at Trent Bridge, it was the top-order batting that came under harshest scrutiny and was identified as the failing from which most could be learned.

Our batters need to adapt faster and better when we compete away from home, came the common refrain.

We need to learn to play the swinging, seaming ball later – preferably right ‘under our eyes’ - rather than pushing at it with force as is the practice in Australia because it just provides slips fodder in places where the ball wobbles about, has been the chorus.

But there were also salient messages absorbed by the seam bowlers, who were arguably as culpable at Trent Bridge given that England’s batsmen careered away to 4-274 in the same conditions – indeed, on the very same day – as Australia was bowled out for 60 inside a morning session.

Which was the Ashes decided, there and then.

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Among those who absorbed the lessons of England was Ashes debutant Josh Hazlewood who, having finished the Test tour as fourth-string seamer and out of the XI, now finds himself leader of the attack and his nation’s pre-eminent strike bowler.

A charter that he lived up to today in scything through New Zealand’s top-order after he was granted first use of a grassy pitch and a brand new ball by dint of his skipper winning the toss and opting to bowl for the first time in his fledgling captaincy.

Hazlewood’s 4-42 from 14 mostly immaculate overs represented his best figures away from home since his maiden overseas Test in the West Indies series that preceded the Ashes, and he acknowledged it was achieved by putting into practice what he had taken out of his UK experience.

In short, when conditions are so ideally suited to bowlers – as they were on that cloudy, calamitous morning in Nottingham last August – the best results can be gained through simplicity rather than by trying to conjure magic every time the ball is released.

"I tried probably a little bit too hard in England, and tried to bowl that miracle ball all the time," Hazlewood said tonight as he reflected on day that belonged, on balance, to Australia.

"Today was a great example of just putting the ball in the right areas and letting the wicket do the work.

"I didn't think there was a great deal of swing but there was obviously a little bit of seam movement throughout the whole innings just about.

"I think while the ball is new at any stage it's going to do a little bit.

"Once the shine and the hardness of the ball is gone it’s quite a good wicket for batting, it didn’t turn much and once our ball got older it didn’t seam much.

"So I think it (the pitch) is going to hold together pretty well.

"The next 10 (New Zealand) wickets that we need will be quite tough to get."

If the pitch at Basin Reserve behaves as history suggests it will – and precedent certainly provided an accurate indication of how challenging batting would be on the opening morning – then Hazlewood and his fellow bowlers are potentially in for a solid slog over the days ahead.

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Five times over the past decade, the team batting third at Wellington (which the Black Caps will do in this Test) have piled on totals in excess of 350, and in the two most-recent Tests at the Basin those third innings scores have been 524 and 680.

Both of them posted by New Zealand.

Perhaps even more ominously for the Australians, the dominant figures in those matches are all involved in this Test.

Captain Brendon McCullum (who scored an NZ record 302 against India in 2014) and then Kane Williamson and B J Watling who compiled a then world record sixth-wicket partnership of 365 (unbeaten) against Sri Lanka last year.

However, Black Caps spinner Mark Craig – who bowled his team to victory in that Test against Sri Lanka taking 4-53 on the final day – believes it would be premature to forecast a three-peat of history in the second half of the current match.

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"The odd ball straightened, but hopefully there’s a bit more spin out there as the game wears on," said Craig, who added that in its current condition the Basin pitch offers spinners greater encouragement from bounce than through turn.

"Traditionally the wicket quickens up a bit.

"You’ve got to give it to the way those Aussie boys bowled, when they got it in the right areas they showed it was very tough to score.

"I wouldn’t say it was seaming massively but once they bowled that slightly fuller length it was doing enough to grab both edges (inside and outside) with that newer ball, provided they got it full enough.

"It (the pitch) is hard to get in on, but once you do you can cash in.

"But it’s too early to tell if it will be a run-fest at this stage."