Conway still basks in epic Lord’s debut
If New Zealand’s Devon Conway needed a reminder he could play, he got it this week as he entered the visitors’ dressing room at Lord’s. Conway is only seven Tests into his career, but there on the wall was confirmation he had already made history: almost exactly a year ago, he became the first player to score a double-century on Test debut at the home of cricket. Phlegmatic though he is, he is still taking it in.
‘I got a moment of that the other day,’ he tells Sportsmail. ‘I walked into the changing room and saw my name up on the honours board again. It brought back memories of what a great debut it was.’
And it really was — not least as he had set the bar low, promising team-mates he would acknowledge them up on the balcony if he got through his first ball.
‘Broady bowled one outside off, and I let it go through — I’ll never forget it: I’ve got through my first ball in Test cricket, which was a special feeling. Then it was about getting into the game.’
A born-and-bred South African, Conway has mastered the native understatement of his adopted country: ‘getting into the game’ became a nineand-a-half-hour epic. When he was out for 200, he had made New Zealand’s highest score at Lord’s since Martin Donnelly in 1949.
The day before, he walked off nerves in Regent’s Park, anxiously asking team-mate Tom Blundell about the challenges of Tests. He looked a natural — and followed up with 80 at Edgbaston, where New Zealand sealed their first series win in England since 1999.
Soon after, he made a crucial half-century at the Ageas Bowl as New Zealand won a low-scoring World Test Championship final against India.
Conway has since cemented his status as one of New Zealand’s best all-format players. He averages 63 in Tests, 75 in ODIs and 50 in T20Is, and is determined never to be pigeon-holed. An opener on Test debut, he has since moved to No 3. frankly, he’d bat anywhere.
Crucially, his story is one of delayed gratification. He and his wife, Kim, left South Africa in 2017 — signing off at Gauteng with an unbeaten double-century — and headed for New Zealand, which he felt offered a better chance of playing international cricket.
A three-year qualification period followed: playing for Wellington, he made an unanswerable case, hitting a double-hundred one season, a triple the next. By the time of his Lord’s debut, he was nearly 30 — and full of self-knowledge.
‘That certainly helped,’ he says. ‘If I’d made my debut at 24, I don’t think I would have known my game as well. I’ll probably only play until I’m 36 or 38. The journey won’t be long, but it’s about enjoying every moment.’
That philosophy was interrupted in bizarre fashion last year, when Conway (left) broke his hand punching his bat after he was stumped in the T20 World Cup semi-final against England. News of the fracture, which ruled him out of the final against Australia, reduced him to tears — but it has sharpened his focus.
‘That’ll be something I’ll live with for a long time, the regret of missing out on a T20 World Cup final,’ he says. ‘I’m not one of the guys who gets upset. It was just a moment of madness. The learning I took was to control your emotions in the heat of battle.’
The next battle is tomorrow’s first Test against hosts now led by a Kiwi icon. Will the Brendon McCullum factor add spice?
‘Yes and no,’ says Conway. ‘We’re very happy for him that he’s been given the opportunity to coach England, but it does make us want to prove a point, just to try to put him under pressure early.’ The Lord’s honours board may not have seen the last of Conway.