England vs New Zealand, 3rd Test – Conway scraps technical tweak … and makes it a Daddy for New Zealand

Devon Conway revealed that he ripped up a plan to remove his trigger movement three balls into his innings of 157, as New Zealand took control on the first day at Trent Bridge.

Conway faced the final three balls of Gus Atkinson’s first over – after Tom Latham, his opening partner, won the toss and chose to bat first under clear skies and bright sunshine in Nottingham – and looked ill at ease. He fended the second ball he faced off his ribcage, and was struck on the back pad by the third after he was beaten on the inside edge.

That was enough for him to reverse an attempted technical change that he had worked on between the second and third Tests, and instead revert to his usual pre-delivery trigger movement which sees him shuffle across his stumps just before the bowler releases the ball.

“I still felt a little bit out-of-sorts at times,” Conway told Sky Sports at the close. “I’ve been struggling a little bit with my pre-movement throughout the series admittedly, so it was quite nice just to get through those tougher periods and then just put the bowlers under pressure and build a partnership.

“I was actually trying out keeping my back foot still and not actually having that pre-movement, because I was getting it in too late throughout this series. I tried it for the first three balls and then I scratched that idea, and just said, ‘Right, try and go back to getting that back foot moving, but just try and get that movement in a little bit earlier.'”

Luke Ronchi, New Zealand’s batting coach, said: “All the guys work on technical things, but Dev was just trying a few little things, doing a few little drills just to work out his prelim [preliminary movement] and how it might work and how it might feel. Today, it worked nicely for him.

“For the first few balls, he was trying one thing and then he changed to another thing, but it helped marry up the way he wants to do it and make the movement more fluid, the way he’d like to be before the bowler lets go of the ball.”

Conway marked his hundred with a ‘rock-the-baby’ celebration, egged on by Latham, having flown home between the first and second Tests to be with wife Kim for the birth of their second child, Taylor.

“It was a long trip, but I was really grateful that New Zealand allowed me that opportunity to get back to be with my wife and see the little ones,” he added. “Tommy did whisper in my ear, ‘I want to see the baby celebration’. We did speak about it, so it was nice to bring it out.”

It was the second time that Conway and Latham had piled on a 300-run opening partnership in just over six months, with their 317 at Trent Bridge falling narrowly short of the 323 they managed against West Indies at Mount Maunganui in December. They also brought up 2000 Test runs as an opening pair during the morning session.

“There’s a couple of little records we’ve been told about with these two batting together,” Ronchi said. “It’s been fantastic. We were hoping they’d be able to knock off their partnership that they scored last summer, but they missed out just by a little bit. But to play like they did and put a partnership on like that, that’s a massive plus for our day.

“Obviously it’s amazing to win the toss, bat, and have a partnership like that,” he added. “The guys have been working really hard leading into the series and our batting, as a group, has got better as the Tests have gone on… It was nice to get to where we have done at the end of the day.”

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