Labuschagne steadies Australia after Hazlewood masterclass

A timely return to form from Marnus Labuschagne in his 50th Test match has Australia cautiously eyeing a first innings lead after another bowler-dominated day in the second Test against New Zealand.

Having knocked over the home team for 162 on a pitch that became enlivened after an hour's play, Australia suffered another top-order wobble to finish 4-124 with Labuschagne undefeated on 45 and Nathan Lyon reprising his recent success as night watch unbeaten on one.

As the only batter to reach 40 on day one, Labuschagne's highest score since his unbeaten 62 against Pakistan at Sydney in January could not have come at a more crucial time, nor in more challenging circumstances as Australia's indomitable quicks showed.

Josh Hazlewood wrapped up another exemplary bowling effort in unusual circumstances, with the final wicket coming after Cameron Green's lone insistence he'd heard an edge led to a belated review that proved successful, with the bowler standing with ball in hand at the top of his mark.

Hazlewood's 5-31 – his 12th five-wicket bag in 70 appearances to date – coupled with 3-59 to Mitchell Starc who is now Australia's fourth-highest wicket-taker in Tests vindicated skipper Pat Cummins' decision to send in the Black Caps upon winning the toss.

But the surface at Hagley Oval, where the 12mm of grass seemed to have delivered no appreciable benefit to bowlers in a wicketless opening hour today, suddenly sprung into life shortly before lunch as batters succumbed at pace from that point.

After NZ lost 10-115 in just under 27 overs of immaculate pace bowling by Australia, the visitors then faced a taste of their own medicine on a lively pitch and with bitingly cold easterly winds gusting up to 40kph.

The contrasting heat generated by Matt Henry, rapidly approaching allrounder status given his single-handed efforts to keep his team in this contest, yielded the prized scalps of reigning Test Player of the Year Usman Khawaja and the difference in last week's first match at Wellington, Cameron Green.

But on a day when Kiwi fans had thronged to the bucolic park setting in the hope of seeing something special from Tim Southee and/or Kane Williamson in their 100th Test appearances, it was a virtual unknown at the opposite end of his Test journey who brought the biggest cheer.

Will Sears, making his Test debut having last night received his maiden cap from former New Zealand great (now Australia assistant coach) Daniel Vettori, ensured he'll never forget his first day as a Test cricketer by snaring a wicket in his opening over.

And to gild that achievement, his scalp was bona fide batting legend Steve Smith who fell to a lapse in judgement as he shuffled across his stumps and offered no stroke to a ball that seamed back and was shown to be grazing off stump upon Smith's plaintive review.

Smith's sixth score of 31 or less from seven innings as an opener was compounded when Henry – who has posed a constant threat with the ball this series as well as providing valuably entertaining contributions with the bat – again tore the heart from Australia's middle-order.

After an engrossing battle with Khawaja where the veteran opener survived a couple of hearty lbw shouts, Henry got his man with the final ball before drinks in the evening session when the left-hander went too far across his stumps and lost his leg stump.

Green and Labuschagne then wrested back some control with a 49-run stand for the third wicket before Henry returned to the bowling crease and jagged a ball back off the seam through the in-form allrounder's defence to brush the back pad before cannoning into the stumps.

Understandably exultant after Green's match-defining 174no at Basin Reserve, Henry struck again soon after when Travis Head's ambitious pull shot yielded a bottom-edged catch behind the wicket after scoring a shot-a-ball 21.

With the pitch showing seam movement and bounce in the final half hour as the Black Caps pushed for another breakthrough, it's unlikely batting will be any more straightforward tomorrow than it proved on day one.

For the second time in as many batting first innings this series, New Zealand failed to reach 50 overs with today's middle-order collapse even more dire than the top-order capitulation at Basin Reserve last week.

After a seemingly comfortable start that suggested there were few demons in the well-grassed Hagley Oval pitch, Hazlewood found the optimum length and the Black Caps rediscovered disarray.

In a remarkable seven-over spell either side of lunch, he sent down seven overs from which he snared 4-14 with 32 of those 42 deliveries being dot balls.

Indeed, if not for an inside edge off Tom Blundell's bat that passed perilously close to leg stump before finding the fine leg rope – just the second boundary Hazlewood conceded in the mesmeric hour or so – his figures would have been even more stunning.

During that pivotal period of the day's play, NZ surrendered 7-46 in less than 16 overs to crash from 1-61 to 8-107 in front of a stunned sell-out crowd that found voice as Southee and fellow tailender Matt Henry thrashed 55 from 46 balls in a defiant ninth-wicket stand.

But as was the case in his team's first innings at Wellington where Henry was also second-top scorer, the fragility of the batters above was ruthlessly exposed by Australia's peerless fast-bowling fast bowling trio.

There had been no sign of the carnage about to unfold until shortly before lunch, even if opener Will Young had been pinned down and managed just 14 from the 57 deliveries he faced.

His dismissal not only came against the run of play but in some ways defied logic, with the right-hander getting a full ball sliding into his pads from Mitchell Starc that he looked to flick through square leg only to find a leading edge that landed in the hands of Mitchell Marsh at third slip.

Young was even more stunned than Marsh at that outcome, and lingered at the crease hoping in vain the television replay would reveal some sort of trickery at work.

There was no such ambiguity about Latham's dismissal from the third ball of Hazlewood's second spell, having finished his first with 0-12 from five overs.

Switching his line of attack to around the wicket, Hazlewood produced a ball that angled in so subtly before holding its line so perfectly that it took a batter in the form that Latham had shown in the opening hour to get the finest of nicks.

His plan to NZ's young batting hope Rachin Ravindra was as contrasting as it was successful, keeping the habitually aggressive left-hander pinned on his stumps before throwing up a fuller, wider offering the 24-year-old obligingly edged to slip via a feet-planted swat.

It was the third time in as many Test outings against Australia that Ravindra has hit catches off balls he might easily have let go outside off stump, and it's safe to assume he'll be given ample opportunity to make it four from four in NZ's second innings.

At 3-71 come the lunch break, the Black Caps' midday meal would not have sat as comfortably as seemed likely at the day's first drinks break, and the dyspepsia became significantly more severe upon resumption.

Hazlewood unfurled another peach to get rid of Daryl Mitchell, whose response to nicking off two balls after striking a sweetly timed drive to the mid-off boundary was to look ruefully at the pitch before offering a wry shake of the head.

But the heaviest blow was landed in Hazlewood's next over when he nipped one past the inside of Williamson's usually unerring bat and the ball clipped front pad before slamming into the back one, at which point umpire Nitin Menon raised his finger.

Perhaps sharing the crowd's disappointment, or simply befuddled by the fact he missed one, Williamson took all but two of the available 15 seconds to call for a review which only confirmed the prevailing view that ball was smashing into his stumps.

With the top half of their batting removed for 84, NZ's sole hope of recovery lay with Blundell and all-rounder Glenn Phillips who had prevailed amid a similar scenario at Wellington where he top-scored in his team's first innings with a belligerent 71 from 79 balls.

Today his defiance lasted eight deliveries that yielded a solitary run before he aimed a ferocious pull at Starc that was smartly caught by Carey diving to his left.

That dismissal carried Starc past Dennis Lillee's tally of 355 wickets and into fourth place on Australia's all-time list of most prolific Test bowlers behind Shane Warne (708), Glenn McGrath (563) and Nathan Lyon (527).

Next ball, he had another when he slammed a trademark swinging yorker into Scott Kuggeleijn's left boot that was shown, on review, to be clipping leg stump.

After such a buoyant start to a red-letter day, NZ found themselves 8-107 and eyeing their lowest total against Australia since they were knocked over for 104 at Perth in 2015 when Blundell fell in identical circumstances to Phillips off Green's bowling.

That indignity was avoided due to the expansive strokeplay of Southee and Henry who, despite coming in at number nine, is currently NZ's leading runs scorer of the series as well as being their best-performed bowler.

However, once Southee holed out to fine leg where Hazlewood held a well-judged catch running in from the boundary, the end came next over in the most anti-climactic fashion with news of the successful review coming through with everyone in position for the next ball.

It provided a neat thumbnail sketch of a day that had promised so much for the Black Caps as they honoured a pair of all-time greats, but ended in an underwhelmingly familiar position against their historically more powerful rivals.

Qantas Tour of New Zealand

Watch all the action from the NZvAUS Tour live and exclusive on Foxtel and Kayo Sports. Click Here to subscribe

February 29 – March 4: Australia won the first Test by 172 runs

March 8-12: Second Test, Christchurch, 9am AEDT

Australia Test squad: Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Michael Neser, Matthew Renshaw, Steve Smith (vc), Mitchell Starc

New Zealand Test squad: Tim Southee (c), Tom Blundell (wk), Matt Henry, Scott Kuggeleijn, Tom Latham, Daryl Mitchell, Glenn Phillips, Rachin Ravindra, Mitchell Santner, Ben Sears, Kane Williamson, Will Young.