His impact has been reflected in the numbers too. Duffy has taken 81 wickets across formats in the calendar year, the most by a New Zealand player, surpassing Richard Hadlee’s long-standing mark of 79 set in 1985.
Known for his swing and accuracy, Duffy adapted seamlessly to the demands of a day-five Bay Oval surface, extracting steep bounce off a hard length to dismantle a West Indies side that had only recently pulled off a remarkable draw in Christchurch.
“I’m just enjoying my career, I don’t know. I don’t look at things too holistically I guess,” Duffy said after the series-clinching win.
“It has been an awesome ride; it’s been testing with all the bowlers going down and obviously the workload is pretty high.
“But I guess the fact that Tommy [Tom Latham] keeps asking me to bowl the ball, I’d like to view that as a bit of a privilege. You just get to trust you to keep bowling and doing the good stuff, so that’s what I’m trying to do,” he added.
Duffy finished the three-match Test series with 23 wickets at an average of 15.43, a haul that set a new New Zealand record for most wickets in a single home Test series, surpassing Trent Boult.
