South African-born Devon Conway dominated day one to hand New Zealand the edge at stumps of the first Test. On debut, Conway scored an unbeaten 136, the highest-ever score for a debutant at Lord’s, and took New Zealand to 246-3 at stumps.
After winning the toss, Kiwi skipper Kane Williamson elected to bat with Conway and opening partner Tom Latham taking the Black Caps to 58 before English debutant Ollie Robinson got his first Test wicket and the first of the match.
Soon after that, James Anderson got the prized wicket of Williamson (13) with the score on 82 – the seventh time he got the Black Caps captain in Tests. Robinson then picked up his second wicket of the day to leave New Zealand at 114-3.
It felt like an old-school Test match with the match balanced and both sides having to work hard for any success. However, it was New Zealand and Conway that would eventually win the battle of attrition, his partnership with Henry Nicholls (46*) unbeaten on 132 at day’s end.
The English bowlers toiled for little profit on day one because it belonged to Devon Conway. He anchored the New Zealand innings showing real composure and temperament on debut.
Scoring a century and batting through the first day on Test debut:
126* C Bannerman Aus v Eng Melbourne 1877
110* SC Griffith Eng v WI Port-of-Spain 1948
142* CC Hunte WI v Pak Bridgetown 1958
136* DP Conway NZ v Eng Lord’s 2021— Andrew Samson (@AWSStats) June 2, 2021
Devon Conway is the 12th South African-born player to make a century on his Test debut.
6 of these are for South Africa and 6 for other countries (Eng 4, Aus 1, NZ 1).— Andrew Samson (@AWSStats) June 2, 2021
And he now has the highest score of those 6,
131 SC Ganguly 1996, 126 MJ Prior 2007, 112 AJ Strauss 2004, 107 H Graham 1893 & JH Hampshire 1969— Sue Abbott (@LiquiSue) June 2, 2021
