Devon Conway was 32 when Mark Wood came in for another over. Conway was making the most of the opportunity on his debut. He played only 45 deliveries to get there. He was not exactly flamboyant but wasn’t dragging either. There was free flow of the hands that were artistic in most cases, and at times, it was amateurish too. He was learning on the job. Stripe one. Stripe two, and he was making a painting of something nobody had done before.
He was just a rookie who had just hit the jackpot of the New Zealand contract. After 29 years, Conway might not be all perfect, but he always knew what he had wanted and was ready to go for it. Of course, who would sell things, pack and move countries for the game?
The gut feeling made THE man he is today. After all, he was playing against the team he had never faced earlier, in a position he wasn’t used to, against two superstar pacers, in one of the most worshipped stadiums in the world.
So, when Wood came in for yet another over, he knew he was either going for fuller delivery or a shorter one. Root gave it away with his fielding set up too. Bang! Conway for right. A couple of beautiful defence and a lovely sound from the bat. If you are the bowler, that is going to frustrate you so much. Wood fell for the prey, and a couple of short deliveries followed. One of them rubbed Conway’s shoulder, and that was the closest he got to the man.
Wood and Root thought that they had a way to get into the mind of Conway, to unsettle him. They brought Ollie Pope to the short leg, and Wood came in with few more short deliveries. Conway, instead of giving up, gave in. He left the first two alone, and the third one was more of a statement. He pulled from the ribcage and almost nailed the shoulders of Ollie Pope, who had to protect his troublesome shoulder by moving away. The ball found the fence. That kept things quiet, and everything went back to normal until 15 minutes before tea.
As Conway was putting on a show that nobody would have thought coming, Root ran out of ideas and threw the ball back to Wood. This time, the plan was the same but with more fielders in the catching position, and the team decided to attack.
Conway was in a zen mode that nothing could really trouble him. As Wood banged in short, a Brian Lara-ish raised right leg pull appeared only to frustrate Wood even more. Gasp. Nothing more he could do.
Conway was all set for these deliveries. After making his first-class debut for Gauteng back in March 2009, he had played for at least 20 teams in his career before making a move to New Zealand. There were smaller teams, some were huge while there were teams whose names you won’t find on Google. Conway found a way to live around cricket with whatever came his way. Every team taught him something, and after millions of missed opportunities, throwing away the chances and everything in between, Conway’s way to New Zealand has been nothing short of an adventure film and today, he stands tall as their saviour in many ways.
He wasn’t always as strong as the scoreboard read. There were moments of miscommunication between his partners, a few inside-edges that usually would hit the stumps and a couple of deliveries that fell short of the fielder. If it wasn’t really his day, everything would’ve been different. The inside edges would have gone to the stumps, the fielders would’ve got to those half-chances but nothing really happened probably because Conway was destined to wait all these years for his big debut.
Everything he achieved something; his critics came up with new challenges and Conway’s answers to all of them were simple. He gave the full rights to his bat to reply. When he did well at the Lord’s, the next question was how he would tackle the Indian bowlers who had created a niche for themselves in the past few years. Conway had the strike within a couple of overs, unlike his debut Test where he had to spend quite a few deliveries before getting his chance.
Instead of allowing the Indian bowlers to read his mind, he unsettled them with his innovations. Ishant did give him scares a couple of times when he went for a swing against the delivery that was well outside off. Another one was simply a beauty from the pacer. Other than that, there wasn’t much to be proud of.
In the case of Ashwin and Jadeja, they had a few times but nothing was really serious as Conway played them all with soft hands. There were slog sweeps, chip, and beautiful cover drives too.
It took 222 minutes for Indians to get him to lose his concentration and it was Ishant once again. When Robinson bowled a fuller delivery angling towards the stumps, Conway flicked it with ease, pierced the boundary riders and got to his hundred on the debut. Here, Ishant bowled a similar one and Conway played a similar shot but the difference was the angle. As Ishant’s were a bit straighter and as a result, Conway found the mid-on fielder.
What more special about Conway is that he can switch on and off based on the format. He came into Tests after playing limited over matches and right after the Test, he went to Somerset and is working on out forming himself every time he walks in.
We have seen multiple players going into Ashes after showing some initial fire. Conway’s next job is to fight against that thought. Years will answer that question. Different opponents will provide the path to that answer. However, from what we have seen so far, even if he goes down into ashes like other promised stars, he is someone who can rise all the way like a phoenix from the ashes.
