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Hamish Marshall - The Glittering Glider |
A Special Feature
on Hamish Marshall by Karthik Narayan
The cricket world has always welcomed the
entry of an enterprising cricketer with open
arms and gleeful smiles all around the
environment. It is that very eruption of
happiness on the faces of many that gladdens and
encourages the newcomer to escalate himself on
top of the ladder pronto. One such exciting
prospect on the cricketing stage is Hamish John
Hamilton Marshall.
Hamish Marshall’s career has not been long
enough to really gauge him but he has shown
exceptional talent and skill in his brief stints
– his Test Debut came in the 2000 New Zealand
tour of South Africa at Johannesburg in December
2000. He came in at No.7, and had a nice knock
of 40. But somehow that battling knock in rain
hit conditions wasn’t good enough for the
selectors to retain him. He had to wait a long 3
years in the sidelines before he was finally
named to play for the ODI series in Pakistan. In
his ODI debut itself, he played well for 55, and
followed it with a century in his third ODI
itself – cracking 101* against Pakistan in the
third ODI at Faisalabad. Even that wasn’t enough
to save his team win the match, but his name had
been locked into the middle order. His good run
of form continued when he got a 62 in the 5th
ODI.
After that his ODI form has been rather
steady with runs now and then, and his good
consistent performances have been pretty
impressive. In 35 ODIs he has 1031 runs with a
century and 10 fifties. His second test match
came after 3 years when he took the field in the
2nd Test versus Bangladesh in 2004-05 at
Chittagong. He made a solid 69. He was retained
for the Trans Tasman Trophy. His handling of the
Australian bowlers was tremendous for someone so
new to world cricket and that too against the
Mighty Aussies – really commendable. He
pulverized the best bowling attack in the world
and his first ever Test Century came in his 3rd
test in the form of a magnificent 146 (from the
Number Three position) in the First Test at
Christchurch.
Marshall’s record is interesting – he made
his first century in ODIs and Tests in his Third
match. Hmmm, I wonder how many people have done
something like that! Then again a fine 76 in the
Third Test made him a super batsman for the
series laden with Aussie victories all over the
park. He showed tremendous temperament to stay
in there and make valuable runs for his team
when all the senior players themselves were
struggling. Now he has once again proved his
mettle with a classy (though it was rather slow)
century against the Sri Lankans on their Run of
Completion of an unfinished test series.
Hamish Marshall displays an exhibition of
free flowing strokes with the exuberance of
youth mixed with the flair of a student set to
scorch the scorers with huge scores. He has the
strokes all around the park, and has the
patience to put a Run-tag over his bat everytime
he has walked in to bat before he ultimately
exits. He is rather stylish and yet has the
copybook shots. Along with his twin brother
James Marshall, the look-a-like twins really
catch the eyes for their distinct resemblance to
each other. That is quite a sight for the
commentators and scorers when the two bat
together!
Again the chances of Hamish Marshall shine
everlasting in this team are even-handed,
somewhat totally in his own hands rather than
anyone else’s. If he carries on in the current
fashion and maintains and works on his scoring
rates, he may very well be the perfect answer to
New Zealand in search of a solid batsman in the
middle order in the wake of the seniors in the
evening of their careers.
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