Devon Conway breaks Sourav Ganguly’s record of highest score on debut at Lord’s

New Zealand opener Devon Conway has had a dream start to his Test career. The left-hander scored a fine unbeaten knock of 136 on the opening day of the first Test match against England at the Mecca of Cricket, Lord’s.

Thus, Conway has broken Sourav Ganguly’s 25-year old record of highest score on Test debut at Lord’s.

The former Indian skipper had scored a fine knock of 131 runs in 1996 at Lord’s against England in his maiden Test match. Conway had made an impressive start to his T20I career and he has also taken the Test format like duck to water. Conway has scored 473 runs in 14 T20I matches at an impressive average of 59.12.

Meanwhile, the southpaw showed his class against England on the opening day as he timed the ball to perfection. New Zealand lost three wickets for 114 runs but Conway and Henry Nicholls added a fine alliance of 132 runs for the fourth wicket.

“It was a pretty surreal moment, I couldn’t have dreamed of a better start to my Test career,” he said afterwards.

“It took maybe three or four overs to face my first ball, but I was pretty grateful for that. It gave me an opportunity to have a look at the bowling from the non-striker’s end. I’ve never faced Broady and Anderson [before], so it gave me a chance to see how it was going off the wicket and get some clues from Tommy Latham. The communication was good and clear, so it gave me a chance before that first ball.”

Conway was able to get his name on the honours board after a fine knock. In fact, the southpaw had asked Kane Williamson how it feels like to be on the honours board of the Lords before the Test match and the Kiwis captain said, ‘Now you know it, bro,’ after the left-hander reached the magical three-digit mark.

“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 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.”