As much as the return of Ben Stokes and Gus Atkinson boosted the morale of the England cricket team and its fans, they were defeated by the New Zealand openers on the very first day. On the first day of the third and last Test match of the series which started in Nottingham, the opening pair of Devon Conway and captain Tom Latham scored centuries and left England yearning for wickets. Captain Latham first scored a century and then Conway also scored his 8th century in Test cricket, leaving behind the failure of the previous two matches of this series.
The third and last Test match started from Thursday 25 June at Trent Bridge Stadium in Nottingham. New Zealand captain Latham decided to bat first and then proved it right himself. Along with his opening partner Conway, he did not allow England to take wickets in the first two sessions. During this, Captain Latham completed his 17th Test century in the second session.
After this, all eyes were on Devon Conway, who returned unbeaten on 94 runs at the end of the second session. There was an uneasiness in the stadium as to whether Conway would be distracted by the T-break and give wickets or continue scoring runs. It didn’t take long to get the answer. Within a few minutes of the start of the third session, Conway completed his century. This was his second overall century against England and fourth century in Test cricket in the last 10 months.
This century scoring by Latham and Conway was very special because this was the 87th time in the history of Test cricket, when both the opening batsmen scored centuries in the same innings. This was also special because before this the Latham-Conway pair had done this feat for the 85th and 86th time also. Conway and Latham scored centuries in both innings of a Test match against West Indies in December 2025. That is the only Test match in the history of cricket, where both the openers of the same team scored centuries in both the innings of the match.
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