Conway was the Player of the Match award in IPL 2023 final.
Chennai Super Kings registered a thrilling last-ball five-wicket win via the DLS method against the Gujarat Titans in the IPL final at Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad on early Tuesday.
Conway had an excellent outing for the CSK team, scoring 672 runs in 16 matches with a strike rate of 139.71. The southpaw amassed six half-centuries to his name in the season and accumulated a total of 77 fours and 18 sixes. He ended as the third-highest run-scorer in the tournament.
During a post-match interview with the broadcasters, Conway said the title triumph was the ‘greatest win of his career’.
“Personally, is the greatest win in my career. IPL final doesn’t get bigger than that. Lot of credit to Mike Hussey, the fellow left-handed player. Nice to be in his shoes,” the CSK opener Conway had said.
However, the New Zealand team fans didn’t like this comment and slammed Conway for rating IPL over winning the ICC World Test Championship in 2021 when they beat India in the summit clash.
This has led to Conway taking back his comments, dubbing the IPL 2023 win as the ‘best T20 victory’ of his career.
“I think it’s the best T20 victory of my career, I wouldn’t say it’s overall my best. But certainly the best T20 victory or achievement in my career. I think the Test championship final, winning that for New Zealand was certainly very, very special,” Conway told RNZ.
Conway said playing for CSK was a great experience. He added that the team management showed faith in him throughout the campaign which helped him put his best foot forward.
“It was a great experience, I was fortunate enough to get a few games towards the back end of the IPL last year, so I got a taste of what it’s like, what the pressure is like, what the team expects of me as a player batting in the top order.
Getting that backing (to open) from the first game throughout this campaign certainly helped me put my best foot forward and create momentum throughout the tournament,” he said.
In the final, Conway scored 47 runs from 25 balls, helping CSK put 52/0 in the four-over powerplay under revised conditions due to rain, where CSK chased 171 in 15 overs.