hamish marshall

Hamish Marshall – the Glittering Glider


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 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.