The veteran Australian quick, who's been carefully managed through his campaign with champions RCB, showed why his team think he's "worth his weight in gold" as his brilliance earned him player-of-the match honours in a five-wicket win over Lucknow Super Giants on Wednesday.
The 35-year-old took 1-20, going at a remarkably miserly five-an-over in this run-drenched world, and also retired Lucknow skipper Rishabh Pant hurt after rapping him on the point of the elbow as he tried hopelessly to knock the Aussie out of his ruthless stride.
"It's been a bit of a long run the last few months," said Hazlewood, who's had to battle Achilles and hamstring woes. "I got the rust out last game against Rajasthan (when he got clouted by wonder boy Vaibhav Sooryavanshi), but felt much better today. It feels I'm in good shape."
After RCB inserted Lucknow, Mitch Marsh tried to give the Super Giants blast-off, hitting one of his two sixes 102m out of Bengaluru's Chinnaswamy Ground.
But Hazlewood, who went for just one off his first over during which he hurt Pant with a short, sharp one before offering him a sympathetic pat of farewell as he hobbled off, then bowled Nicolas Pooran and did everything but clean up Marsh's stumps, missing by a whisker.
"He's been absolutely worth his weight in gold," agreed Mo Bobat, RCB's director of cricket.
"He played a pivotal role in our title win last year. We had to manage Josh a bit at the start, but Cricket Australia were excellent, and collaborative with us, and now it's great to have him back. He's been brilliant."
Once Marsh was bowled by Krunal Pandya (2-38) for a 32-ball 40, RCB bowled out the visitors for 146, with Bhuvneshwar Kumar (3-27) and Rasikh Salam Dar (4-24) giving Hazlewood terrific support.
That proved a cakewalk for an RCB side guided by Virat Kohli, who anchored the chase with 49 off 34 balls, while his young teammates produced fizzing cameos around him, including the 'finisher' David, who got them over the line with 14no off eight, including a four and a six.
Kohli, who was included as an impact player while still not feeling 100% fit with a sore knee, ended up again donning the orange cap as leading IPL run-scorer this season.Â
As with Hazlewood, such seemingly ageless mastery bodes well for the champs. Asked if he'd now be back for every game, the Aussie smiled: "The plan is to hopefully keep playing. Our schedule is pretty good, so fingers crossed."
