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Milly (left) and Mary Taylor were re-united at Birmingham Phoenix after playing for Warwickshire and Hampshire respectively this season
An interview with cricketers Mary and Millie Taylor offers a double take.
The 20-year-old identical twins share such a striking resemblance that even Georgia Adams – their coach since the age of 11, former teammate at Sussex, and current captain of Mary at Hampshire – admits to occasionally struggling to distinguish them.
During their time at Bede’s School, the sisters would sometimes swap classes, a ruse that went unnoticed by their teachers.
However, on the cricket field, their teammates have a distinct advantage: once they each have a ball in hand, identification becomes significantly easier.
Mary bowls right-arm seam, while Millie is the sole professional female cricketer in the country bowling left-arm wrist-spin. Mirroring 25% of all identical twins, they are “mirror twins,” reflecting each other in their handedness.
Like many siblings, their early cricket experiences were shaped by backyard rivalries.
“I’ve always been a seamer because I’ve always been, ‘Mills, go down there and I’ll try and take your head off’,” Mary explains, immediately countering the suggestion that she is the more dominant twin.
“That’s why I started out as a keeper,” Millie concurs.
Regarding Millie’s inspiration for bowling left-arm leg spin, she notes, “Our brother Henry bowls right-arm leg-spin. And as a little one, I just looked at it, and I was like, that must be how you play. So I copied his action. I’m naturally hypermobile anyway.”
Currently, both are professional cricketers, fresh from representing Birmingham Phoenix in The Hundred. Reflecting on playing on such a prominent domestic stage, Mary observes, “It feels like that back garden again.”
For years, the sisters were inseparable, playing at Eastbourne Cricket Club, representing Sussex, and providing mutual support and fitness during the Covid lockdowns.
However, last winter, the harsh realities of professional sport led to their separation for the first time.
Amidst the restructuring of women’s domestic cricket, Mary secured a contract with Hampshire. Meanwhile, Millie, representing Southern Vipers Academy after her sister earned a full Vipers contract in late 2023, anxiously awaited her own opportunity.
When an offer finally arrived, it necessitated a move 200 miles from their family home in Eastbourne to Birmingham, to play for Warwickshire.
“Our agent contacted all the counties,” Millie recalls. “And then a contract finally came through and I was like, ‘is there any other option? Has a closer county offered me anything?’ And he went, ‘no’.”
“There was a bit of umming and ahhing because it was so far away. I didn’t go to uni, so I’ve never moved away from home.”
Mary had witnessed Millie grapple with self-doubt throughout the 2024 season, unsure if she would follow in her sister’s footsteps into professional cricket.
“She was traveling around the country to watch me, and there’d be days where our coaches and myself and my mum and dad and my brother would have to pick her up and be like, ‘no, this is what you want to do,'” Mary remembers.
Therefore, when the offer from Warwickshire materialized, Mary encouraged Millie to seize the opportunity.
“I made her a pros and cons list, and there were about 60 pros, and about two cons. One con was leaving me, and the other one was leaving Mum and Dad.
“I was very much, ‘go for it, Mills, this is a great opportunity to start your career’.”
After a winter of adjusting to being apart, this season has presented its own unique challenges.
Last month, the pair reunited in The Hundred, but only Millie was selected for the Phoenix starting XI, leaving Mary on the bench.
“I was absolutely ecstatic when I saw my name,” Millie says. “But I had to stay quite level, because I was happy, but obviously, I was upset that I wouldn’t be getting to play with Mary.”
“When the team came through, I was a little bit like, ‘I told you so’,” Mary says. “I said, ‘right, don’t worry about me, I’m going to be fine, you need to go and bowl everyone out, off you go’.”
By the time Mary earned her place in the starting XI, her sister had suffered a broken finger, prematurely ending her first professional season.
Consider, too, their parents, who have traveled extensively to attend as many of their daughters’ matches as possible.
“Mum hid behind a tree when we were playing each other,” Mary says. “She always gets so nervous – especially when Millie had to bowl at me at Edgbaston [during the Women’s Vitality Blast].
“Then again, my heart was racing at that. I was like, she’s only got two more balls in her spell, I’ve just got to not get out!”
Mary survived, but Warwickshire won the match and advanced to Blast Finals Day.
Millie was the competition’s leading wicket-taker, but with Hampshire set to compete in the inaugural Metro Bank Women’s One Day Cup final in Southampton on September 21st, Mary disputes that her sister holds bragging rights this season.
One thing remains certain: the rivalry that began in that Eastbourne backyard continues to motivate these two mirror twins.
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