When you think of T20 dashers at the top of the order, you probably won’t think of Devon Conway first. He’s got a T20 strike rate of less than 130 overall, and he isn’t the big, swashbuckling, six-hitting T20 archetype.
And yet, if Chennai Super Kings are still technically alive in IPL 2022, it is as much down to Conway as anyone else. In the last three matches, Conway has hit 85* off 55 in a victory against Sunrisers Hyderabad, 56 off 37 that set the team up well before a batting collapse resulted in defeat against Royal Challengers Bangalore, and most impressive of all: 87 off 49 against Delhi Capitals.
The innings against Capitals was flawless from a T20 point of view. He began with a four flicked off his toes to set the tone. Then he played a key supporting role followed by a starring role in taking down two of the Capitals’ main threats. After Ruturaj Gaikwad had charged the pacy Anrich Nortje first-ball for six, Conway himself ensured the pressure was kept on Nortje with a first-ball four of his own, when he got strike in that over. Soon after, he neutralised the spin threat posed by Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav.
Axar was brought on in the powerplay and was smacked for two sixes. The takedown of Kuldeep was brutal, with 34 runs coming off his first two overs – 30 of them scored by Conway off eight balls. It was an assault that threw the Capitals in disarray. And Conway just carried on from there.
As Conway would say later, he merely struck to his game and his strengths. “For me the key is to try and be very simple, and authentic to myself as a player,” he said at the post-match press conference.
“My blueprint’s quite simple. In the first six (overs), try and play strong cricket shots. Analyse the situation, the surface and the conditions, and the just keep up the communication with Rutu at the other end. He’s a class player, he’s really calm at the crease, so him and I have good chats out in the middle and we complement each other quite nicely in the middle.”
However, there was a tactical adjustment he made too, thanks to input from his captain, MS Dhoni. In his innings against RCB, Conway had got a few runs from the sweep shot, but also gotten out to Wanindu Hasaranga while playing it. Before this game, Dhoni suggested he could mix things up by coming down the track to the Capitals’ spinners too. It’s a mark of Conway’s skill and adaptability, that he could put pull that off at such short notice.
Read: MS Dhoni says failing to reach playoffs won’t be ‘end of the world’ for CSK
“I have got to give credit to MS actually,” Conway said at the Man of the Match presentation. “In the last game I swept quite a lot, and I unfortunately got out playing the sweep. But he said to me, ‘I think the guys are going to try to bowl fuller to you tonight. So maybe come out and try to hit them straight.’ He sort of gave me the guideline to try to execute that tonight.”
When a batter is capable of sweeping spinners as well as using his feet to them, the margin for error shrinks rapidly. It was a margin that the Capitals bowlers couldn’t find.
The other CSK stalwart who contributed to Conway’s success was the man the New Zealander is most likened to in the franchise set-up: Mike Hussey. A versatile left-hand opener from Oceania, soft-spoken and a complete cricket nuffy, it’s not hard to see why Conway in the CSK yellow is reminiscent of Hussey. And with Hussey being part of the CSK coaching set-up, it’s become a routine for Conway to have a chat with him before batting.
“I think I’ve heard that a few times now, which is quite good,” Conway smiled. “To get compared to one of the greats, Mike Hussey… it’s pretty special to be possibly in that bracket.
“He’s got so much knowledge, so much experience. Not only in the IPL, but throughout the world. It’s just very important for me as a player to continue talking to him and learning from him and just getting some guidelines when I need it.”
After the IPL 2022 auction, the CSK fan army might have mourned at the break-up of a successful opening combination when Faf du Plessis couldn’t be bought back. However, CSK love doing things retro, so it’s only fitting that the man who has replaced du Plessis at the top of the order is a throwback to the man du Plessis himself had replaced.
The start has been promising already for Conway. And although this season only hangs by a thread, the signs for the future in that opening combination with Gaikwad are full of exciting possibilities.
Saurabh Somani has been a cricket journalist since 2009, having worked with Cricbuzz, Wisden India and ESPNCricinfo. He tweets @saurabh_42
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