Latham-Conway's Historic Opening Partnership

Tom Latham and Devon Conway set the record for the highest opening partnership by New Zealand in a Test match in New Zealand with 323 runs. It is the second-highest opening stand in the Test history of New Zealand, only behind the 387 runs by Glenn Turner and Terry Jarvis against the West Indies in Georgetown, 1972.

The previous record of 276 opening stands (twice) in 1930 and 1999 in New Zealand. The West Indies took 86.4 overs to claim their wicket, a time which is the fourth longest of the century. The longest was the 114.1 overs taken by Zimbabwe against the West Indies in Bulawayo, 2023.

The 178 that Conway scored on Day 1 is the 3rd highest score of a New Zealand batsman on the opening day of a Test, following Brendon McCullum’s 195 against Sri Lanka in 2014 and Latham's 186 against Bangladesh in 2022, both in Christchurch.

This marked the sixth occasion when both the openers scored centuries in the 483 matches of the New Zealand Test. The last one was in 2019, against Bangladesh, when Latham and Jeet both made centuries.

Moreover, it was the second occasion that Latham and Conway had put together a 150-plus opening partnership in Test cricket. Their previous highest partnership was 183 runs against Pakistan in Karachi, in 2022.

Latham and Conway have a total of 1,721 runs in 43 innings, surpassing the 1,655 runs by John Wright and Bruce Edgar in 56 innings. They are now the most prolific opening pair in the history of New Zealand's Test cricket.