Best figures in an innings in Tests – the only 3 men with all 10 wickets in an innings

Five wickets an innings is the bowlers equivalent of a century – it’s a remarkable achievement. But 10 wickets in an innings simply cannot be compared to a double century.
While both are remarkable achievements, the problem for bowlers is that there are a finite number of wickets available to take, and at best, you can only bowl every second over.
Taking 10 wickets in an innings is almost impossible – it could perhaps be said to be the bowling equivalent of a batsman scoring all the runs in his team’s innings.
But while no batsman has ever scored 100% of his team’s runs, there are handful of bowlers who have managed to take 10 wickets in an innings. Let’s take a moment to look back at the three bowlers who have achieved this incredible achievement in a Test.
1. Jim Laker (England): 51.2-23-53-10 vs Australia at Old Trafford in 1956
Quite possibly the greatest bowling performance of all time, Laker didn’t just claim 10 wickets an innings, he took 19 in the match. It was an incredible achievement and one that seems unlikely to ever be replicated. What makes his performance so incredible is that he had another world-class bowler in Tony Lock bowling from the other end. Laker was bowling off spinners while Lock was left-arm orthodox.
For whatever reason the Australian batsmen struggled more with Laker’s offies than they did with Lock’s balls which turned the other way. Naggingly accurate, Laker’s unerring accuracy meant fielders were willing to crowd the bat and place the batsmen under big pressure.
Although he only played two Tests for England Alan Oakman was one of the stars of ‘Laker’s Test’ as he snaffled five catches at bat-pad. Standing at 6’6″ he had a huge reach and an intimidating presence, and he held everything that came near him.
After batting first England scored an imposing 459 all out. But the wheels came off for Australia as, after an opening stand of 48 between Colin McDonald and Jim Burke, they plunged to a disastrous 84 all out. Opener Burke was the only Australian who wasn’t removed by Laker.
Asked to follow on Australia did slightly better in their second knock, but a score of 205 wasn’t enough to get England batting again. This time Laker added the wicket of Burke to his nine scalps from the first innings as he completed a remarkable achievement of 19 wickets in a game. By way of context, the next best performance is 17 wickets in a game and that’s in First Class cricket, not in a Test.
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2. Anil Kumble (India): 26.3-9-74-10 vs Pakistan in Delhi in 1999
The pitch at Delhi’s Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium clearly had a bit in it for the spinners, but as was the case with Laker, Kumble also had another world class spinner bowling from the other end. Bowling in tandem with Harbhajan Singh Kumble’s second innings return saw Pakistan plummet from 101 without loss to 207 all out as India won the Test by 212 runs.
Kumble, one of the great all-time bowlers is fourth on the list of most wickets taken across all formats. A tall leg spinner who didn’t get huge turn, Kumble sent the ball through quickly and used his height to generate troubling bounce. He had great control and while he will never be in the same league as Warne or Muralitharan in terms of his ability to generate turn, he always did enough to have batsmen wary. A total of 619 Test wickets is testament to his quality.
Playing for a team that included an incredible range of close-catching fielders, Kumble bowled Saleem Malik and Inzamam-ul-Haq, had three batters dismissed LBW and the rest caught close to the bat. Twice he found himself on a hattrick. it was a masterful achievement and made him only the second player ever to claim 10 wickets in a Test.
3. Ajaz Patel (New Zealand): 47.5-12-119-10 vs India in Mumbai in 2021
The third and final player to manage the incredible 10 wicket haul is Black Cap spinner Ajaz Patel. A player who started out as a fast bowler, he was forced to reinvent himself as a spinner when it became apparent that he would never make it to the top as a quick due to his lack of height. Instead, he transformed himself into a left-arm spinner and he was eventually awarded with a call up to the National side after a period of sustained domestic success.
Unlike the other two performers who claimed 10 in an innings, Patel achieved his feat in the first innings of the game. On a pitch that was a spinners dream, India won the toss and elected to bat first. Although he didn’t open the bowling – that task fell to Tim Southee and Kyle Jamieson – he bowled almost unchanged for 47.5 overs after he was introduced as first change.
Against a top Indian line-up that included the likes of Virat Kohli, Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara and Shreyas Iyer, Patel simply worked his magic, generating turn and showing immense powers of concentration and stamina as one-by-one he picked off the Indian batsmen.
Unfortunately for New Zealand the Indian side were laden with their own quality spinners and between them Ravi Ashwin, Axar Patel, Jayant Yadav were more than a match for the Black Caps as India won by 372 runs (New Zealand dismissed for just 62 in their first innings). Patel did add to his first innings haul with a further four scalps in the second innings, but he was denied a five-for when India declared their second innings on 276 for seven.
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