The batsman who could never play again after scoring a 'big' century in ODI, partnership of 274 runs, single-handedly scored more runs than the opposition team

New Delhi. Right-handed batsman James Marshall can be considered the unlucky cricketer of New Zealand (New Zealand Cricket Team). James scored the highest score in the match he played for the Kiwi team in all three formats of cricket, which proved to be his last international match. In this match, James not only scored a 'big' century but also shared a 274-run partnership with Brendon McCullum for the first wicket. Both these batsmen scored centuries in the match. In this ODI against Ireland (New Zealand vs Ireland) on 1 July 2008, James scored 161 and McCullum scored 166 runs. Due to the brilliant performance of both of them, the Kiwi team scored a huge score of 402 runs in the match and won the match by a huge margin of 290 runs, but after this James could never become a part of the New Zealand team in any format.

Apart from James Marshall, his twin brother Hamish has also played for the New Zealand team. Among the two brothers, Hamish's career was longer than James'. While Hamish played 13 Tests, 66 ODIs and 3 T20Is between 2000 and 2007, James' career was 'eclipsed' after only 7 Tests, 10 ODIs and 3 T20Is. James, who retired from all formats of cricket in 2013, regretted his short international career. He had said, 'If I had been more successful at the international level, I would have been very happy. This is the only regret I have while leaving cricket.'

This father-son duo used to bat at the speed of a turtle and made two special records in Tests

Highest first wicket partnership in ODI by New Zealand
In the ODI against Ireland, James opened the innings with McCullum and both of them scored big centuries. James scored 161 runs in 141 balls with the help of 11 fours and 4 sixes while McCullum scored 166 runs in 135 balls with the help of 12 fours and 10 sixes. Both of them had a partnership of 274 runs for the first wicket which is still New Zealand's biggest partnership for any wicket in ODIs. The Kiwi team scored 402 runs in the match by losing just 2 wickets in which apart from these two batsmen, Ross Taylor also contributed an unbeaten 59 runs. In response to New Zealand's target of 403 runs, the Irish team was able to score just 112 runs in 28.4 overs. McCullum and James Marshall scored more runs than all the batsmen of Ireland combined. Tim Southee and Michael Mason took three wickets each for the Kiwi team.

Test in which 5 batsmen of a team got out on 0, the same team won by an innings margin, 2 players of the current Bangladesh team were involved

Before the century, he had scored only 161 runs in 9 ODI innings

After this match, James could never play for New Zealand. In his short international career, he could score only 218 runs with one half-century in 7 Tests, in 10 ODIs he scored 250 runs at an average of 25, which also included an innings of 161 runs against Ireland, that is, in the other 9 innings, only 89 runs came from his bat. In three T20 International matches, he could score only 14 runs.

Tall fast bowlers who played Tests for India, some played 'long innings'

7 centuries in List A matches, average of 35.52
Although James could not play many matches in international cricket, his record in New Zealand's domestic cricket and List A matches was excellent. James scored 4902 runs (average 35.52) in 158 List A matches which included 7 centuries and 33 half-centuries. Similarly, in 148 first class matches, he scored 7 thousand 422 runs at an average of 31.85 which included 13 centuries. His highest score in first class cricket was 235 runs.

Specialist bowler but proved to be very 'expensive', took wickets at an average of 45+ in Tests, took three hat-tricks

Ponting was upset when James and Hamish played together in the test
Among the brothers who played Test cricket together, Australia's Steve Waugh and Mark Waugh were also twins, but the faces of the Waugh brothers were different from each other. But the faces and gestures of the identical twins James and Hamish were so similar that even the players of their own team often made mistakes in recognizing them. These two brothers played together in one Test and one ODI. The Marshall brothers played international cricket in the era when in limited overs cricket the name was written on the back of the shirt but this was not the norm in Test cricket, so it was not easy for the opposing team to identify these two brothers who looked alike. When these two brothers played together in the Test against Australia in Auckland, the captain of the opposing team, Ricky Ponting, was very troubled. Ponting told after the match that he had to work hard to find out who was Hamish and who was James among the two brothers.

Tags: New Zealand cricket, ODI cricket