Mirror twins: The Taylor twins blazing a cricketing path

After a winter coming to terms with being apart, this season has created its own challenges.

Last month, the pair were reunited in The Hundred – but only Millie was selected in the Phoenix starting XI, with Mary left 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 forced her own way into the starting XI, her sister had sustained a broken finger – an injury which has sadly put a premature end to her first season as a pro.

Spare a thought, too, for their parents, who have clocked up hundreds of miles trying to get to as many of their daughters’ respective 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 went on to reach Blast Finals Day.

Millie was the competition’s leading wicket-taker – but with Hampshire poised to reach the first ever Metro Bank Women’s One Day Cup final in Southampton on 21 September, Mary denies that her sister has this season’s bragging rights.

One thing is for sure: the rivalry which originated in that Eastbourne back garden is still very much a driving force for these two mirror twins.