Hazelwood picked 5 for 31 in a devastating spell of fast, accurate bowling.

They weren't daring to do so anywhere close to his earshot. More out of respect for Sir Richard Hadlee than dread. But around half hour into the second session of Day 1 in Christchurch, a few of the patrons in the members' area had started comparing Josh Hazlewood to Sir Richard Hadlee himself. Not so much as in direct comparison. More loosely around whether the Australian new-ball operator would be the closest in the modern era to the greatest Kiwi bowler of all time.

It was quite the compliment for Hazlewood. And for it to be floated around in the pavilion named after Sir Richard Hadlee made it even better. Well-deserved too. He'd just come to the end of one of the most destructive spells ever by an Aussie on these shores, seven overs of sheer metronomic genius that had broken the back of the New Zealand innings.

They don't throw around the name Hadlee casually in these parts. So, it was just a glimpse into how deeply Hazlewood had won the New Zealand cricket faithful over with his efforts on either side of the lunch break.

It started with his second spell of the morning, where he decided to commence from around the wicket to the well-set Tom Latham. Hazlewood had been at his unrelenting best with the new-ball as well, nearly having Will Young out on numerous occasions, at one point beating his outside-edge with four straight deliveries. What he'd also done, as is the norm with Hazlewood, is identify the precise length from where to enhance the probability of getting the edge.

It took him only a handful of deliveries then to get it absolutely perfect, and have Latham poking at a delivery he could not have left alone and getting rid of him.

It's a world-beating ability after all that Hazlewood shares with Hadlee. For, speak to anyone who played with him, and they say that the first bowler to breach the 400-wicket mark had a lot of skills, but the greatest being able to always know what lengths to bowl on to get batters out. At home, and away and everywhere he played Test cricket. Much like Hazlewood, as he showed for the umpteenth time during this Test summer. Along with the inevitability of him getting the batter out once he's set his sights on them when on a burst like the one he was in the midst of on Friday (March 8) afternoon.

It's interesting that even his own pace colleagues refer to him as the "human metronome". While that's true about Hazelwood just like it was about Hadlee, what often gets masked by their inimitable accuracy, is the way they set batters up. And also the way they suffocate them into making mistakes. Those who stood in the slip cordon or donned the gloves for Hadlee talk about how dropping a catch off his bowling was always something they dreaded. Only because they didn't want to let the great man down. Rather than worrying too much about him remonstrating. "That's ok, I'll get the edge again, you better do your job right the next time," is at best what the guilty party might get from Hadlee.

Hazlewood's got that same unflappable belief about him. Even if he doesn't talk about it. It helps that he also has a rather less expressive demeanour about him, which if anything makes his menace with the ball even deadlier. One of those bowlers who ends up doing a lot more with the ball than you'd think he needs to.

And while at times it's easier to break down a devastating spell from Mitchell Starc or Pat Cummins, a Hazlewood masterclass requires a much deeper exploration to really get to the root of. It's the subtleties he uses with regards to the slightest alterations to lengths, the clever use of the crease in terms of where he's releasing the ball from and the mind games he plays with the batters.

Rachin Ravindra was a classic example of someone who had been outthought by Hazlewood. It was a very classical setup. A number of balls slanting in to the left-hander from an angle with the occasional one straightening from on or around off-stump. Before Hazlewood dished out the sucker ball, a wide fuller delivery that Ravindra ended up chasing as has been the bane of his batting in this series.

The deception was equally subtle when he got rid of Daryl Mitchell and Kane Williamson in his 100th Test. Just half a stump's length wide of off-stump to get Mitchell nicked off, and half an inch fuller to mess with Wiliamson's feet and have them trapped in the crease, his pads right in line of the stumps when struck by the ball. It's ironic then to hear Hazlewood talk about how when in the middle of a wicket-taking spell, he tries to make sure that "his head" doesn't get in the way, and he can just bowl his best ball over and over again.

In a matter of five overs, or less than that, Hazlewood had ripped the game open and completely shut out the New Zealand top to middle order. There were the typical punch in the air celebrations from Hazlewood each time he struck, but little apart from that. To the extent he strolled around the ground once Cummins gave him a break, more like a man who was walking his dog, whose recall was clearly of a high standard, around the Hagley Oval, his arms crossed, his face as unperturbed as ever. After having missed a majority of two straight Test summers, Hazlewood for good measure has been making the most of being part of the Test team more regularly over the last four months. And 34 wickets at 13.70 are an indicator of how much he's missed and how much he's been missed.

It's one thing briefly mentioning a fast bowler from elsewhere in the same breath as Hadlee. But there's no chance any of them would even imagine drawing comparisons between a New Zealand fast bowler and the ultimate overlord of fast bowling in these parts.

But Matt Henry has had the kind of overwhelming impact on the Aussie batters as Sir Richard used to at his pomp. So much so that batting has gained a seemingly extra level of difficulty every time Henry has had a ball in his hands. Even as Tim Southee and the rest have struggled either for that penetration or the lack of ruthlessness, the seasoned new ball bowler has, if not taken a wicket straight away, been a handful to every one of the Aussie batters.

The way he set up Usman Khawaja after he was set, was reminiscent of how Hazlewood got Latham. Even though here Henry had decided to use that around the wicket angle to cramp the left-hander and target his stumps. It worked just like he'd planned it. The same as his setting up of Cameron Green and knocking him over with a relatively full delivery that burst through the in-form giant Western Australian's defences. No surprises that Henry lauded Hazlewood for having shown him and his bowling group exactly how to take wickets on this surface. Maybe even Hadlee might have agreed with him. Not that anyone around him in the members' area would have dared ask him about it.