Conway, Latham in rare company after 323-run opening stand

The 323-run opening stand between Tom Latham and Devon Conway against the West Indies at the Bay Oval is the second-highest opening partnership for New Zealand in Tests, behind the 387 runs added by Terry Jarvis and Glenn Turner, also against the West Indies in Georgetown in 1972.

Highest opening partnerships for New Zealand in Tests

This partnership is also the highest opening stand in Tests on New Zealand soil. The previous record of 276 runs was jointly held by Stewie Dempster and Jackie Mills (for New Zealand vs England in Wellington in 1930) and Sherwin Campbell and Adrian Griffith (for West Indies vs New Zealand in Hamilton in 1999).

This is also the record for the highest opening partnership in the World Test Championship since it commenced in 2019. Rohit Sharma and Mayank Agarwal had earlier held the record with a 317-run opening stand against South Africa in Visakhapatnam in 2019. This stand also became the highest partnership for any wicket in a Test in 2025.

This is the fourth century opening stand between Latham and Conway in Tests, the second-most for New Zealand after John Wright and Trevor Franklin, who stitched five century opening partnerships.

This was also the second 150-plus opening partnership between Latham and Conway in Tests. They put on 183 against Pakistan at Karachi in 2022.

Latham and Conway now have 1721 runs (avg: 40.02) as a Test opening pair in 43 innings, the most by a New Zealand duo, surpassing John Wright and Bruce Edgar's 1655 runs in 56 innings.

Tom Latham (137 runs) and Devon Conway (178* runs) became part of the sixth instance when both New Zealand openers scored centuries in the same Test innings. The previous instance was against Bangladesh when Latham (161) and Jeet Raval (132) both scored hundreds at Hamilton in 2019.

The West Indies took 86.4 overs (520 balls) to take their first wicket against New Zealand today. It was the fourth-longest drought (by balls) for the first wicket in Tests in this century. Zimbabwe needed 114.1 overs to take their first wicket against the West Indies in Bulawayo in 2023 – the longest drought for a first breakthrough.

New Zealand's total of 334/1 is the second-highest at the end of the first day on New Zealand soil for the loss of just one wicket. New Zealand made 349/1 against Bangladesh in 2022 in Christchurch.

Devon Conway's 178* at the end of the first day is the eighth-highest individual score and the third-highest by a New Zealand batter on the opening day of a Test. Only Brendon McCullum (195 runs against Sri Lanka in 2014) and Tom Latham (186* runs against Bangladesh in 2022) scored more.

New Zealand captains rarely choose to bat first at home in Tests. Today, they did so for the first time in 14 years and 26 home Tests. The last New Zealand captain to choose to bat after winning the toss in a home Test was Daniel Vettori against Pakistan at the Basin Reserve in January 2011.