When New Zealand went out to bat on the morning of the first day of the opening test at Lord’s, there was one opener who had waited for over a decade for that opportunity to come. Devon Conway, the 30 year old left handed batsman had moved from South Africa, sold his car and all his property to start afresh in New Zealand and build a career from scratch. All this must’ve been running through the mind of the debutant as he walked down the long-room at the Home of Cricket.
He had to wait for a bit to get a taste of facing bowlers at the International level, as his batting partner Tom Latham faced all of the first three overs himself. But once Conway got on strike, he looked at ease right from the start. Neither the much talked about slope, nor the experience of Broad and Anderson seemed to worry the Left Hander, as he looked in solid touch on the morning of Day 1. Conway was technically sound, batted exactly how an opener should in English conditions. He was compact in defense, played the ball under his nose, driving square of the wicket to negate the movement off the slope.
Lovers of Test Match batting were glued to the screen as Conway unleashed some gorgeous drives through the off side. Without much assistance off the wicket, English bowlers tried using the crease and employed various tactics. The pacers got closer to Conway’s pads, tried surprising him with some short-stuff, but the opener was quick to pounce on those deliveries with flicks and pulls with minimal effort. There wasn’t too many shots in the V as he was letting the ball come to him rather than reaching out in front with the hands.
Those hours of discipline and concentration paid off, as Conway brought up three-figures in style. A pick up off the pads, using the pace of Mark Wood and clearing the men in the deep to bring up a well deserved debut 100. The celebration was subdued, much like you expect from players from New Zealand, even though he had done something the likes of Tendulkar and Lara haven’t done, something that millions of kids around the globe dream of doing – to get on the Honors Board at Lord’s.
Come Day 2, and Conway wasn’t done yet as he continued where he had left off on Stumps on the opening day. Root came in to bowl to take the ball away from the left hander, but to no use as he got punished through the off side and straight back down the ground. England persisted with the short-ball with a short-leg in place and men back for the pull and the hook, but to absolutely no avail as Conway pulled them away with disdain.
Wickets around him started to tumble, with the middle order struggling to make a dent, and soon New Zealand were 9 down, with the opener on 186. Whether Wagner at no.11 could survive was the deciding factor whether Conway could get to a magical debut double-hundred. Turns out, Wagner didn’t just survive, but unleashed a cameo of 24 off 17 balls. This allowed Conway to go to 194, and then to 200 with a six over fine-leg off Mark Wood.
The man who had to start from scratch, go from underperforming in South Africa, moving to NZ and working up the ranks, finally making his Test Debut at the age of 30, that man had finally proved his weight in gold with an innings that broke a plethora of records and caught millions of eyes around the globe. As Devon Conway humbly acknowledged the crowd and his teammates at the iconic Lord’s balcony, everyone watching felt that this is it, this is the stuff dreams are made of.
-Vibhor Dubey
The Average Cricketer 