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In a team packed with superstars, a shy soft-spoken Devon Conway is making his presence felt with some power-packed performances with the bat for Chennai Super Kings.
The South African-born New Zealand left-hander was brought by CSK at last season's auction for Rs 1 crore and after a steady showing last season, he is finally living up to his potential with consistent performances in IPL 2023.
Conway is enjoying a dream run with the bat with five half-centuries from his six games, to score 414 runs in nine matches at a strike rate of 144 -- the third highest run tally in IPL 2023.
In fact, IPL seems to get the best out of Conway, who boasts of an impressive strike rate of 144 in 16 games against his overall T20 career strike rate of 129.
The 31-year-old entertained the home fans in Chennai with a brilliant 92 -- his highest IPL score -- to power CSK to 200/4 against Punjab Kings at the M A Chidambaram on Sunday.
Electing to bat, CSK need a big score on a flat wicket and Conway set the tone with two successive boundaries off Punjab's strike bowler Kagiso Rabada in the second over.
Ruturaj Gaikwad hit Arshdeep Singh for two fours and Conway pulled the pacer for the third boundary of the third over. The CSK openers repeated the treatment on Sam Curran with three fours off the sixth over as CSK raced to 57 for no loss in the Powerplay.
In fact, Conway continued to be aggressive in the middle overs, especially against the spinners. He hit part-time spinner Sikandar Raza for a delightful inside out boundary over the covers before hitting leggie Rahul Chahar for a straight six in the ninth over.
Conway showed his full range as he reverse swept Raza for a four through point to race to his 50 from 30 balls -- his fifth this season.
He raced into the 80s in the 17th over and looked set for his maiden IPL century but he didn't get much strike in the last three overs. The well-set Conway faced just six balls out of the last 18 balls of CSK's innings as he finished eight runs short of the hundred mark, having hit 16 fours and a six in his 52-ball knock.
Despite his cracking innings with the bat, man of the match Conway walked off the ground virtually unnoticed to louds chants of 'Dhoni Dhoni' as CSK talisman Mahendra Singh Dhoni reserved his Thala act for the end -- smashing Sam Curran for successive sixes off the last two balls of the innings.
Conway then saw his effort go in vain as Punjab, despite none of their batters getting a half-century, still managed to overhaul the huge target. They staged a great comeback in the last few overs courtesy Liam Livingstone and Raza, with the latter guiding them to a sensational finish off the last ball.