But get them on at either end in a one-day match, and the chemistry between Accrington-born Martin and Haslingden man Austin is perfect.
In every round of the NatWest Trophy this season, they have played a key role in putting the skids on the opposition's innings. But never as dramatically as at Lord's on Saturday.
Derbyshire were cruising along at 70 without loss in the 19th over when Austin had Michael Slater lbw 55 balls later, they had collapsed to 81-7 - and four of the 11 runs they scored came from overthrows.
Austin ended with 3-14 from 10 overs, Martin 4-19 in nine, with David Gower giving Austin the man of the match award because while Martin had bowled a slightly wayward opening spell, Austin ``didn't bowl a bad ball.'' Ask any regular Lancashire watcher, and they could tell Gower that he rarely does.
As he swigged his Verve Cliquot champagne from the bottle, Austin reflected on his partnership with Martin.
``This year we seem to have complemented each other very well,'' he said.
``While Wasim and Glen Chapple are perhaps trying to bowl magic balls, especially on a pitch like this, we just put it on the spot, and don't bowl many bad ones. ``If you look at our figures in the NatWest this season, I'd say we would both be averaging 10 runs per wicket and going for no more than three an over.'' Skipper Wasim, who was grateful to the pair after his own erratic opening spell, said: ``Ian and Peter bowled brilliantly. They have been doing for the whole season. I'm glad England have picked both of them. I have been saying that they should do for a couple of years.''
But even though they played together in the Emirates triangular series against South Africa and Sri Lanka, they didn't actually bowl together.
``We came on one after the other from the same end,'' explained Austin. He is hoping that Adam Hollioake will let them open the bowling in Bangladesh next month - and that success there might persuade the England selectors to give them the nod for the World Cup.
This wasn't a two man show, though. Martin had been grateful to a brilliant catch by Andy Flintoff to dismiss Adrian Rollins, and Flintoff linked up with Wasim Akram yesterday morning to share the last three wickets and prevent Dominic Cork and Karl Krikken leading a recovery as they had done in the B&H final of 1993.
Then, after Cork had bowled Mike Atherton, John Crawley and Neil Fairbrother showed that batting was far from impossible on this pitch - lending further weight to the efforts of Austin and Martin the previous day.
Crawley cruised to his half century from 90 balls with 11 fours to continue his own purple patch, but there were not enough runs for Fairbrother to get his 50 as Lancashire wrapped up nine wicket victory in the 31st over of the shortest-ever NatWest final. Not that he was too bothered. Last week he described losing to Derbyshire in the 1993 B&H final, when he was captain and played an heroic innings, as ``my worst moment in a Lancashire shirt. I was distraught that night.''
The mood on the Lancashire bus driving north yesterday afternoon was much more cheerful.