Devon Conway had a ‘great’ time returning to the team after sitting out for nearly a year. Before the match against Zimbabwe, where he scored an unbeaten 59, nearly half of the target, and a game before that, where he managed only 9 against South Africa, he had last played the format for the Kiwis in the 2024 T20 World Cup. These two wildly opposite innings happened during the borrowed time Conway got in Finn Allen’s absence, whose foot injury ruled him out of the tri-series. While Conway feels for Allen, he is happy he got a chance to share the dressing room once again with his teammates.
“It’s great to be back in this environment. It’s been a while, so just getting the call-up to come back into the squad is fantastic,” he said at the post-match press conference. “Obviously Finn Allen’s injury is unfortunate, but for me it’s nice to get that opportunity to be with the squad again and see a couple of faces who I haven’t seen in a long period of time. And it was nice to contribute today to the win.”
Zimbabwe posted a modest target of 121 for New Zealand to chase, which the visitors achieved with eight wickets to spare. However, the surface wasn’t very kind to batters. Conway’s 59* off 40 balls ensured he held the innings together, especially as new batters rotated in. The challenging nature of the pitch stemmed largely from it being different from the one used in the first two games. The ball appeared to slow off the surface, making timing difficult. Conway himself struggled early on against the new ball and was given a reprieve on just his second delivery when Blessing Muzarabani dropped a sitter.
“There was a lot of steep bounce in the surface, which was a little bit unexpected, but we adjusted, and thankfully we only had to chase 121 and managed to get across the line,” he said. “With the new ball, especially their left-armer [Ngarava], it was a massive challenge for us as batters. They bashed that wicket really hard and got a lot of steep bounce out of it, so it made it pretty hard for us batters early.”
New Zealand have now won both of their tri-series fixtures so far. Besides the win against Zimbabwe, they also defeated South Africa by 22 runs in their first game. Their next match is on Tuesday, again against South Africa. A win there will land them in the final.
This is New Zealand’s first tour under Rob Walter as head coach. Before joining the Kiwis as their all-format coach, Walter worked with South Africa’s white-ball sides. He has signed a three-year contract with New Zealand, which means he will coach them through the entire World Test Championship (WTC) cycle, and at least one T20 World Cup and one ODI World Cup. Conway, who previously gave up his central contract, isn’t certain if he will stick around that long, but he has enjoyed working with Walter.
“It’s just been a couple of days we’ve been with him, but his positive mindset around T20 cricket has been nice and clear for us batters,” Conway said. “He’s brought positive energy and a slightly new way of thinking, so it’s nice to have him on board and experiment with how he operates as the head coach.”
