Josh Hazlewood took 6/49 on Tuesday, his best Test figures yet. He used a clever setup to dismiss Wiaan Mulder during the fifth morning. Hazlewood worked for two overs to trap the batter before Alex Carey grabbed a brilliant catch. He later bowled Marco Jansen and Simon Harmer with ease.
From the outside, it might have seemed like a classic strangle down the leg side. A set batter in Wiaan Mulder getting unlucky in getting a faint inside-edge to a harmless delivery sliding past his pads. But in reality, it was a setup. One that Josh Hazlewood had worked on for close to two overs.
The ball by then was into its 67th over and Hazlewood had just started to get it to go the other way. A couple of deliveries tailing in late into the right-handers. To Mulder's credit though, he had barely put a foot wrong till this point on the fifth morning. Even the more experienced Aiden Markram at the other end had nearly succumbed to a couple of flirtatious moments outside off-stump. But not Mulder.
But here's where Hazlewood decided to plot a different trap with the reverse-swinging ball. A couple of times he'd seen Mulder walking a tad across his stumps and the ball sneaking past his top glove as he instinctively tried to play the glance. Hazlewood didn't mind telegraphing his next move either as he asked for a leg slip to be brought in though slightly wider. The by-play here being getting Mulder to second guess himself about what length he was going to be targeted with for the next delivery. The subtlety also came from getting the fine-leg fielder to go a tad squarer than where he was stood. The final execution of the plan came via Hazlewood getting the next ball to land on around middle-stump, a tad fuller, with the late movement on this occasion grabbing the edge before Alex Carey completed one of his best Test catches ever. Diving to his left and grabbing the ball in his webbing.
There was nothing too glamourous or sensational about the dismissal or even the setup for that matter. It's not one of Hazlewood's 311 Test wickets that'll get a lot of airtime in his career highlight reel. There were a couple an hour or so later on Tuesday itself, where he finished with his best Test figures yet of 6/49, that will overshadow the Mulder wicket.
There was genuine genius after all in how he had Marco Jansen bowled through the gate before knocking out Simon Harmer with a genuinely unplayable rising delivery. It was in the working over of a very well-set Mulder on a surface that was giving him very little to play with though that showed off Hazlewood's maturity and the self-belief in the mastery of his skills.
A trait that reflects the core of this Australian Test team under Pat Cummins. A grown-up team who had just pulled off a grown-up Test win. It doesn't mean to say they always get it right. Where they are unflappable is in their eagerness to put in the hard grind. And even more importantly, the confidence they have in themselves, their plans and their ability to eke out Test wins even in conditions where the hard grind doesn't always guarantee success. Whether it's in their selections, quirky at times, or in-play tactical adjustments. A grown-up outfit, who've played a lot of cricket with each other, and don't mind strategizing on the go.
Like they've had to do repeatedly over the last five days in Durban to pull off one of their finest wins as a group. But this wasn't a one-off. While under Cummins, Australia have been largely successful in conditions around the world, there are three Test wins that really stand out as benchmarks for how they've evolved.
Each of them two years apart. Lahore 2022. Melbourne 2024. And now Durban 2026. Each one of them where for large parts they weren't able to dictate terms but instead had to fight their way back into the contest. While also having to remain patient and not compromise on their intrinsic collective belief system. If winning the 15-day Test in Lahore was the setting up for the blueprint for success in the Cummins-Andrew McDonald era, the incredible MCG win over India in 2024 was the updated model of that formula. What we've witnessed at Kingsmead this time around if anything is an illustration of the pinnacle they could get to with his team ethos, especially at the start of their legacy-defining run.
And it only seemed apt that the hero of the finish was Hazlewood who embodies it more than anyone else in the team. On a day, the rhythm guitarist, who so often lets the two lead guitarists he shares the stage with in Cummins and Starc take the plaudits, decided to produce his best solo yet to steal the show.