CRICKET - Marshall amped at chance to realise his Lord's dream

Lord's has always been the venue James Marshall has coveted the most. In that regard he is not exactly unique among his peers in the Black Caps team.
But the 29-year-old Northland cricketer got the jump on his touring teammates in England at the weekend with an eyecatching century in a tour match against Essex at Chelmsford, a batting performance that has him leading the race to realise a cricketing dream, and play a test against England at Lord's.
There is one more tour game to go before the test team is selected, but Marshall's form in a disappointing Black Caps effort has him sitting pretty to resume his test career that has been in a holding pattern since his last cap against Sri Lanka three years ago.
Marshall scored 128 batting for more than five hours on a seaming wicket that the rest of the Black Caps batsmen struggled to conquer.
Now he is eyeing the No. 3 slot for the first test, the spot vacated when former captain Stephen Fleming retired.
It was an innings that capped off a big weekend for the Marshall family. James' twin brother Hamish scored a century for Gloucestershire on the same day.
"I look back on it and it was quite a tough time to bat the whole 90 overs. The whole day of the ball seaming around was tough and to get through to three figures on that sort of surface was good. I was just impressed with the way I hung in there mentally and got through it without too many loose shots," Marshall said.
"With the whole squad here now and a lot of competition for places leading to the tests and only two more games to impress the coach and captain and those who select the side, it was nice to get some runs," he said.
"It doesn't mean you are in the side, you have got to keep scoring runs heavily and pick yourself in that way."
Marshall said that, since captain Daniel Vettori and the other IPL contracted players have joined the tourists in England, that the intensity had stepped up. The first test was now looming large on the horizon.
"I think the guys who have played a lot of cricket probably won't be feeling the pressure as much as others, they know their games pretty well. A lot of the guys want to get some runs under their belts and go into the test with a bit of confidence, that's really important.
"Because everyone has arrived now you definitely feel you are on tour just because the whole squad of 16 players is here and raring to go. The IPL guys have shown a lot of enthusiasm and keenness to get into the test."
Since making his test debut against Australia in 2005, Marshall has battled to find favour with the selectors but is revelling in the atmosphere on tour. The Black Caps finish their match against Essex today. Their next tour game is against England A at Southampton starting on Friday. The first test at Lord's starts on May 15.
"We are amped to get into it, with one game to go we can't get too far ahead of ourselves regardless," he said.