Marshalls give fans double take

One with a slightly rounder face, one with slightly longer hair, one with a slightly shorter backlift.
Theories abounded on how to tell the identical Marshall twins apart at New Zealand cricket training this week, and the man who should know ? coach John Bracewell ? did his best to sum up the sometimes futile exercise of splitting them.
"One today had a slightly orange heel to his shoe," Bracewell observed, only just managing to keep a straight face.
"The other one I noticed when I got up close had an already squeezed pimple just by his nose.
"You've got to be quite accurate about it. In general James' hair is slightly tighter in its curling. There are little things..."
James and Hamish Marshall have given New Zealand cricket watchers double vision for the rest of the series against Australia, and the fans are'nt the only ones struggling.
Their mother Kate calls on instinct, and can pick them by hair length and running style, but father Drew struggles from a distance when they wear traditional cricket whites.
A former girlfriend apparently couldn't either, after one twin suddenly stopped calling. So the story goes, she stormed into a bar and slapped a stunned Marshall, who politely pointed out the intended target across the room.
James Marshall revelled in the attention as Black Caps newcomer when the team assembled at Eden Park, and admitted the pair get up to mischief with mistaken identity. Both answer to each other's names, and teammates are yet to invent distinct nicknames to separate them. For now it's just Marshy, times two.
But would international cricket be the occasion to try and fool everyone, even their opponents?
"Not at all. There's been talk about it but it's not the stage for it," James said.
"We do have fun with it, I suppose we do enjoy it. It comes with the territory. We've had our fun, but we won't go into stories about it ? it's not for printing."
Viewers are able to split them from the back, with James sporting No 33 and Hamish No 34. Also, Hamish's frizzy locks poking from under his cap are shorter, with James having escaped a recent haircutting mission from their mother.
"I guess I know because I trim the hair and one will be due for a haircut because I haven't been able to get him in a corner and give it a bit of a clip," Kate Marshall said last week.
"They're identical in every way, their tastes are so similar."
The story started in Warkworth, north of Auckland, 26 years ago when Drew and Kate Marshall were expecting only one son. James emerged first, then they got the shock of their lives when Hamish followed.
"I was 15 minutes before Hamish, and he was a surprise. They didn't know Mum was having twins until she arrived in the hospital and I was popping out," James said.
The pair have been inseparable ever since and still share a room at the family home.
When the team checked in to their plush Auckland hotel last week, it seemed strange they weren't sharing. The days of room-mates are over for international cricketers who get one each.
"He still keeps ringing me up in the morning to come in and see him," James said with a laugh.
"We've shared a room for our whole lives and we're still sharing. We're not sick of each other at all, we get on so well, my best friend is my brother."
Cricket in the summer, rugby in the winter was always the go for the Marshall boys from the age of five on the family tennis court.
James said the constant fierce competition helped lift each other to a new level, through Auckland's King's College, on to Northern Districts and now to full international status. They still train together every day, and if one is struggling, the other drags him up.
Hamish broke through first when chairman of selectors Sir Richard Hadlee was impressed by his dual centuries on a New Zealand A tour of India in 2000. Then, James' first-class record was superior to Hamish, who hadn't scored a first-class century but was rushed into the test team to play South Africa in Johannesburg. The wisecracks ensued that Hadlee had picked the wrong twin.
Hamish acquitted himself well on debut with a gutsy 40 not out, then in the past year established himself as an invaluable member of Bracewell's one-day unit which rose to second in the world.
"Hamish got there of his own right and he proved he deserved to be there," James said.
"I've had to work my own way to the Black Caps. I've never dwelled on me having better statistics, he's done the job and I have to prove myself."
Bracewell hailed the arrival of the pair last week, part of his new breed of one-day cricketer with an eye to the 2007 World Cup in the Caribbean. Whippet-like between the wickets, able to tick the score over at a run a ball without bludgeoning boundaries, and lightning in the field.
"It's fantastic to be selected. I've watched the side for many years and with Hamish in it it's a bit more special.
"That is the ultimate, if we get the chance (in the same 11) it'd be pretty special."