Black Caps vs South Africa: Devon Conway’s struggle for runs continues

Sunday, 4 February 2024

ANALYSIS: You can’t get a much smaller sample size than two deliveries.

So, on the first day of the home test season, leaping to clear conclusions would be as dangerous as spying a green tinge to the Bay Oval pitch and believing it would be hugely advantageous to bowl.

But sport can be cruel, so Black Caps opener Devon Conway came under the microscope after a day when his dismissal for one sparked the initial conversation surrounding the first test against South Africa.

The left-hander received a delivery which debutant Tshepo Moreki may have spent hours dreaming of the previous night.

The whippy right-armer had Conway pushing forward to a ball which pitched outside the line of off stump and then cut back off the seam to beat the left-hander’s bat and strike his front pad.

The resultant raucous appeal was quickly granted by umpire Richard Kettleborough and while Conway consulted with his batting partner, a decision was made not to review the judgement.

He was not alone in being beaten by the visiting bowlers in the opening session - Latham and Kane Williamson played and missed on occasions, with Conway’s opening partner eventually falling for 20 when he looked like he’d got himself set to accumulate many more.

Yet it’s been 13 innings since Conway’s last test ton - a superb century in Karachi at the start of last year. There’s been two half-centuries since, and some turmoil in the two tests in Bangladesh, as his average has dropped over the past year from 54.76 to 43.96.

In other formats, there’s been a slide too.

Conway began the ODI World Cup with a bang, making an unbeaten 152 in the win over England to kick-start New Zealand’s campaign but didn’t get past the half-century mark in his next nine innings.

In the T20 arena, there’s been two 50s in his last 15 bats, resulting in there being five test innings, nine ODIs and 8 T20Is since his last half-century.

He also went into this encounter without finding runs in the domestic white-ball game.

But it’s not merely numbers - the eye test clearly shows the 32-year-old is battling to find his best stuff.

Conway has never been a batter you’d used to illustrate an old MCC coaching manual. Even at his prolific run-gathering best, he’s been substance over style.

There’s not a laconic grace to his batting; it’s instead bustle and belligerence, intertwined with the desire to not let the opposing bowlers gain an ascendancy - and it’s worked brilliantly.

Currently, former Black Caps coach John Bracewell on SENZ felt Conway was often “jammed up” around his front foot, leading to a regular similar method of dismissal when playing around a stiff front leg against bowlers coming around the wicket.

At his peak, Conway’s methods and ability to negotiate danger would have likely seen him inside-edge Mobeki’s peach into his pads.

At one remarkable stage in the burgeoning career of the transplanted South African who made his international debut in November 2020, Conway was averaging better than 50 in all three formats.

That achievement was never going to last, and his current international career numbers are still highly reputable - an average of 43.96 in tests, 44.50 in ODIs and 38.63 (at a strike-rate of 128.65) in T20s.

There’s rightly not an iota of thought from head coach Gary Stead and selection manager Sam Wells that Conway’s place in the test side is in any jeopardy.

But Conway, more than anyone, will be furiously working on how to rediscover his form before Australia arrive for the summer’s acid test.