New Delhi. Two pairs of twin brothers have played Test cricket together. The most famous among these is the Australian pair of Steve Waugh and Mark Waugh. Waugh Brothers – Steve and Mark played ‘long innings’ in international cricket for Australia. Steve played 168 Tests and 325 ODIs while ‘Junior’ Mark played 128 Tests and 244 ODIs. Both brothers played together in 108 test matches, Steve was captain of Mark in 40 of these. Apart from these two, another pair of twin brothers have shown their talent in Test cricket.
The Marshall Brothers of New Zealand – Hamish Marshall and James Marshall were different from Steve and Mark in the sense that apart from being twins, their appearance also resembled each other. Apart from appearance, height, their hair style and batting stance were also similar. In such a situation, apart from the opposition team, the players of their own team had to struggle to recognize the two brothers. Marshall Brothers played cricket at a time when names were written on the back of the shirts in limited overs cricket but this was not the practice in Test cricket. Both Marshall brothers were seen together in a Test and an ODI.
Hamish and James played this Test and ODI against Australia in Auckland. In the match, Australia’s captain Ricky Ponting also admitted later that till the end he struggled to identify who among the two brothers was Hamish and who was James? At the end of the match, Ponting felt that he had discovered the ‘code’ of identity.
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Hamish played more international matches than both the brothers.
Both Hamish and James have very impressive records in first class and List A cricket but they did not succeed in international cricket as per their talent. Both were right handed batsmen. Hamish was the more successful of the two brothers. He played 13 Tests, 66 ODIs and three T20 matches for the Kiwi team, while James played 7 Tests, 10 ODIs and three T20s. Hamish had the better international record of the two brothers. Hamish scored 652 runs with the help of two centuries in 13 Tests, 1454 runs with the help of one century in 66 ODIs and 12 runs in three T20s, while James scored 218 runs with the help of one half-century in seven Tests, one century in 10 ODIs. Helped by scoring 250 runs and 14 runs in three T20s.
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Hamish scored 31 centuries in first class cricket
Born on January 15, 1979, among these two brothers, Hamish was a few minutes older than James. Hamish scored 14820 runs with the help of 31 centuries in 264 first class matches, during which his average was 36.59. In 312 List A matches, he scored 7506 runs at an average of 27.80, which included seven centuries. On the other hand, James scored 7422 runs in 148 first class matches at an average of 31.85, which included 13 centuries. In 158 List A matches, he scored 4902 runs at an average of 35.52. Hamish played his last international match in 2007 and James in 2008.
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Father Andrew also used to make mistakes in identifying
Despite looking similar, mother Kate used to recognize Hamish and James very easily in childhood, whereas father Andrew used to make mistakes many times. Both brothers played for the Northern Districts (ND) team in New Zealand’s first class cricket. Once, during a four-day match, Northern Districts team captain Robbie Hart made a mistake in identifying him. Robbie had told, ‘Hamish was the better bowler among the two brothers but I accidentally asked James to bowl instead of him. Since both the brothers used to bowl, even James did not realize my mistake. However, after a few matches, I started recognizing both the brothers 90 percent correctly.
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The scorer and coach of the Northern District team were also worried.
Not only the captain of the team, in the initial phase even the scorer had difficulty in identifying the two brothers and marking their correct score. ND team’s scorer Bill Anderson once told that outside the field, one brother used to wear a watch and the other a bracelet. He had told the media in a joking tone – If I told you which brother wears a bracelet and which one a watch, then it is possible that both of them will change their identity. Team coach Bruce Blair used to identify both of them by their batting stance apart from slight differences in their faces. James used to bend a little more while batting than Hamish. Both Marshall brothers also played for New Zealand in the 1998 Under-19 World Cup.
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Tags: Cricket, mark waugh, new zealand cricket, Off The Field, On This Day, Steve Waugh
FIRST PUBLISHED: March 8, 2024, 07:40 IST