Bowlers Who Have Claimed All 10 Wickets in an Innings of a Test Match

As a globally recognised sport, cricket is over a century old. Many exceptional feats have been achieved, and numerous unbelievable performances witnessed in all these years, but nothing has been as unique as claiming 10 wickets in an innings.

Many great batsmen have come and gone, scoring record-breaking centuries, double tons and even triple tons, but the bowlers take the cake here as claiming 10 wickets in an innings is a very rare feat.

So rare that only three players have gone on to achieve it in over 100 years of international cricket.

Bowlers Who Took 10 Wickets In An Innings

The list below shows the names of the players who have claimed 10 wickets in an innings of international cricket to date.

Bowlers Who Took 10 Wickets In An Innings

Bowlers

Figures

Against

Year

Jim Laker (ENG)

10/53

Australia

1956

Anil Kumble (IND)

10/74

Pakistan

1999

Ajaz Patel (NZ)

10/119

India

2021

 

Jim Laker – 10/53 vs Australia | 1956

This was a very memorable match as Laker accounted for 19 of the 20 Australian wickets that fell in that match. It was the fourth Test of that series, played in Manchester. Batting first, England had piled on 459 runs. That set a strong base for them, but Laker came up with an extraordinary bowling performance to completely bully the Australians. He came very close to sealing all 10 wickets in the second innings of the match itself, but he ended up with one short, with figures of 9/37. Tony Lock was the bowler who accounted for the other wicket.

However, Laker didn't leave room for error in the third innings and destroyed the Australian batting unit, who were following on. The off-spinner claimed all 10 wickets this time while conceding only 53 runs, and he dismissed seven of the 10 batters for single-digit scores. He bowled a total of 51.2 overs and also delivered 23 maidens. This was how Laker became the first bowler in the history of international cricket to claim all 10 wickets in an innings, and England won that match by a massive margin of an innings and 170 runs.

This was the first time such a rare feat was achieved in international cricket, but Laker did it once before in first-class cricket. The off-spinner claimed figures of 10/88 in a tour match against the same Aussies before the series, and helped Surrey to become the first county to beat Australia since 1912.

Anil Kumble – 10/74 vs Pakistan | 1999

This was the second Test of Pakistan's tour of India in 1999. Pakistan were in a strong position in their chase of 420 runs, as Shahid Afridi and Saeed Anwar had built an opening stand of 101 runs. They had sent the Indian bowling attack into a frenzy with their counter-attacking batting style. That was when Anil Kumble came into the attack and spun his magic.

The wrist-spinner ran through the Pakistani batting line-up like the proverbial hot knife through butter. Five of his 10 wickets were either bowled or lbw dismissals, and that sums up how he bamboozled the visitors. Kumble bowled a total of just 26.3 overs, including nine maidens, and that was all he needed to destroy a dangerous Pakistani batting unit. The crowd at the Feroz Shah Kotla erupted after his feat, and the joy of winning a match against Pakistan, that too by such a huge margin of 212 runs, had made the moment even more special for the Indian fans.

Ajaz Patel – 10/119 vs India | 2021

This is a more recent feat and although it's another player of Indian heritage who achieved it, he did it against India while playing for New Zealand. Patel, a left-arm spinner, achieved this monumental feat in the first innings of the second Test against India in Mumbai. He bowled 47.5 overs, including 12 maidens, to claim all 10 wickets in an innings. But he couldn't help the Kiwis bundle India out for a low total.

Mayank Agarwal played an equally good knock there as he made 150 to propel India to a competitive score of 325. The New Zealand batsmen couldn't come up with a good performance against the Indian bowlers, though. They managed totals of 62 and 167 in the two innings and India won the match by a massive margin of 372 runs. Despite the loss, the match was memorable for Patel, who was a resident of Mumbai until he relocated to New Zealand with his parents in 1996.

Apart from these players, this feat of 10 wickets in an innings has also been achieved by 74 more players, including when the rules of the game weren't formal enough. Edmund Hinkley is known as the first cricketer to achieve this feat in first-class cricket, but there is still a debate around it as the scores weren't formalised enough back then. Tich Freeman has claimed 10 wickets in an innings thrice, whereas the likes of WG Grace, Hedley Verity and Laker have done it twice.

List of Other Players Who Have Claimed 10 Wickets in an innings in First-class Cricket 

  • Naeem Akhtar 
  • Peter Allan
  • Gubby Allen
  • Zulfiqar Babar
  • Trevor Bailey
  • Jack Bannister
  • Ted Barratt
  • Bob Berry
  • Billy Bestwick
  • Cyril Bland
  • Colin Blythe
  • Ian Brayshaw
  • Johnny Briggs
  • George Burton
  • Samuel Butler
  • Premangsu Chatterjee
  • George Dennett
  • Alonzo Drake
  • Arthur Fielder
  • Tich Freeman
  • George Geary
  • Ottis Gibson
  • George Giffen
  • Tom Goddard
  • E. M. Grace
  • W. G. Grace
  • Ken Graveney
  • Clarrie Grimmett
  • Subhash Gupte
  • Eddie Hemmings
  • William Hickton
  • Fitz Hinds
  • Edmund Hinkly
  • Eric Hollies
  • Harry Howell
  • Bill Howell
  • Stephen Jefferies
  • Richard Johnson
  • Vallance Jupp
  • Alec Kennedy
  • Bart King
  • Anil Kumble
  • Jim Laker
  • James Lillywhite
  • Tony Lock
  • Shahid Mahmood
  • Arthur Mailey
  • Jack Mercer
  • Tommy Mitchell
  • Debashish Mohanty
  • Albert Moss