Hazlewood's return fuels Bengaluru's IPL title dream

Questions about Josh Hazlewood's fitness were posed repeatedly at Royal Challengers Bengaluru's press conferences ahead of their Indian Premier League playoff and the Australian showed on Thursday why there was so much interest in his availability.

Returning to action after spending a month on the sidelines recovering from a shoulder injury, Hazlewood helped put Bengaluru on the cusp of a first IPL title with figures of 3-21 against Punjab Kings.

Three-times runners-up Bengaluru bundled out Punjab for 101 and then chased down the target in 10 overs to book their place in Tuesday's final.

On a pitch that offered swing and bounce, Hazlewood took the key wickets of fellow Australian Josh Inglis and rival captain Shreyas Iyer, blows which Punjab never really recovered from.

"The bowling unit was obviously back to the unit that bowled for most of the tournament, and again, we knew our roles really well," Hazlewood told reporters after their eight-wicket win.

"There was a little bit of seam movement, the bounce was probably a little bit inconsistent, so we sort of utilised that as best as we could."

Hazlewood's 21 wickets from 11 games make him the third highest wicket-taker this season behind Noor Ahmed (24) and Prasidh Krishna (23), both of whom have played three games more than the Australian.

On Mullanpur's spicy wicket, a target of around 150 could have proved tricky, said Hazlewood.

"They probably just had to pull back a little bit and try and get a score on the board, you know, 150-160 would have been a difficult chase potentially," he added. "But I think we only let them bat as well as they could have, through our bowling."

The lively wicket also meant Hazlewood did not have to push his body to the limit on his return from injury.

"The wicket helped obviously, I didn't have to bowl any fast yorkers or anything like that, so yeah, it's feeling not too bad."