Devon Conway became the third non-England player to hit a century on debut in Lord's as New Zealand dominated the opening day against England at the home of cricket.
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The first day of the England international summer gave a semblance of the normal that existed before the coronavirus pandemic. There were crowds in attendance. The sun was out and the wicket in Lord’s was placid. New Zealand chose to bat and Devon Conway created history. Making his Test debut, Conway blasted an unbeaten 136 to put New Zealand in the driver’s seat. Conway got to the landmark when he whipped Ollie Robinson to the deep backward square leg fence for a boundary. New Zealand ended the day on 246/3.
Devon Conway became the 12th New Zealand player to score a century on Test debut. However, the South African-born New Zealand batsman became the third non-England player to score a century on debut in Lord’s. Conway joined Australia’s Harry Graham and India’s Sourav Ganguly in the list of non-England players to have achieved the feat. John Hampshire, Andrew Strauss and Matt Prior are the England players to have scored a century on debut in Lord’s.
Jackie Mills was the first New Zealand player to hit a century on debut in 1930 against England in Wellington. Bruce Taylor, Rodney Redmond, Mark Greatbatch, Lou Vincent, Matthew Sinclair, Scott Styris, Kane Williamson, Jimmy Neesham, Hamish Rutherford and Tom Blundell are the other New Zealand players to have achieved this feat.
Graham scored a century in 1893 against England while Ganguly scored 131 in that famous Test in 1996. Conway’s ton marks his rising success in New Zealand cricket after making the move from South Africa.
Devon Conway was born in 1991 in Johannesburg. After years of toiling in the domestic circuit, Conway was in the reckoning for a spot in the South Africa Under-19 squad of 2010 that also included Quinton de Kock and Temba Bavuma. But, the lack of opportunities and no stability meant he could not have a future in the South Africa team. He went the Kolpak route in 2017 and migrated to Wellington, New Zealand.
Having sold of his house, car and other things in South Africa, Conway lived a simple life in New Zealand. He landed a coaching gig and coached cricketers in several Wellington schools. Conway became a prolific run-scorer for Wellington in List A. In First Class cricket, he scored a triple century for Wellington against Central Districts in the Plunket Shield.
Conway considers Joe Root, Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers as his mentors. In the series against Bangladesh, Conway scored a brilliant century. In the Twenty20 Internationals, he was unlucky to miss out on a century as he was left unbeaten on 99. But, he has finally broken the jinx and registered a century on debut in Lord’s.
“When we arrived at Lord’s a couple days ago we walked into the changing room and got the opportunity to have a look at the all the legends and the names up on that honours board. Funny enough I had a conversation with Kane asking what it feels like to see your name on that board [for Williamson’s hundred at Lord’s in 2015], and the first thing he said when I went up into the changing room was ‘Now you know what it’s like, bro’. It’s pretty cool, it’s a great place and I’m grateful my name can go up there,” Conway mentioned as soon as he got to his century. Indeed, Conway is living a high life currently.
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