“Devon Conway is 4 days late”: R Ashwin finds the funny side of Conway scoring 99 not out four days after IPL 2021 auction

R Ashwin finds the funny side: The Kiwi middle-order batsman seems to have impressed the Indian spinner with his career-best score.

During the first T20I of the ongoing Australia’s tour of New Zealand in Christchurch, New Zealand batsman Devon Conway narrowly missed out on his maiden T20I century in only his fifth innings in the format.

Coming in to bat at No. 4 in only the third over, Conway soon found New Zealand captain Kane Williamson (12) returning back to the pavilion. Having made his T20I debut earlier this summer, the southpaw started to dictate terms in only the fifth over by hitting Jhye Richardson for a six on the leg-side.

In the following over, Conway hit a boundary off Kane Richardson to ensure that the runs keep flowing despite the hosts losing three quick wickets. Facing Australia all-rounder Ashton Agar after the powerplay, Conway reverse swept the left-arm spinner against the turn with a stamp of authority.

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It was on the last delivery of the 13th over when Conway ran a single off Australia all-rounder Marcus Stoinis to complete his third T20I half-century. With New Zealand losing the likes of Glenn Phillips (30) and James Neesham (26) towards the business end, Conway made it a point to find boundaries at will.

Needing 12 runs off the last three balls to register his maiden T20I century, Conway fell short by a run as he could run only a single on the last ball of the innings. Having scored 99* (59) including 10 fours and three sixes, Conway powered New Zealand to 184/5 in 20 overs.

R Ashwin finds the funny side of Devon Conway scoring 99*

Among many other prominent names, Conway particularly impressed India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin who took to social media platform Twitter to point out how the 29-year old batsman was “four days late” for such an innings.

What Ashwin meant was that Conway could’ve found himself a buyer in Indian Premier League 2021 auction had his career-best T20I effort come before the auction held last week in Chennai.

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