Laker’s mark: Eng off-spinner takes out 10 in 1 innings

Jim Laker took 9 wickets in the first innings of a 1956 Ashes match against Australia. In the 2nd, Laker did one better - he took all 10

- HT Correspondent

Great achievements that magnify human endeavour have a timeless quality — climbing Mount Everest for the first time or running the first sub-four minute mile, for instance.

Test cricket's greatest single performance came in the summer of 1956, when England off-spinner Jim Laker made history by becoming the first bowler to capture all 10 wickets in an innings.

Laker’s magnificent 10/53 came in the Australian second innings of the fourth Ashes Test at Old Trafford, after a near-perfect storm had hit their first innings where he captured 9/37. Laker’s match haul of 19/90 remains the greatest bowling feat in Test cricket by some distance. No one else has claimed more than 17 wickets even in the history of first-class cricket.

“An astonishing performance” was how Australia legend Richie Benaud, one of those swept up in the wake of Laker's relentless performance, would recall that performance at a 50th year anniversary in London.

Ithad been 12 years since Don Bradman’s retirement and Australia were a weak side. England had won the previous two Ashes series in 1953 and 1954.

Laker, a medium-pacer and batsman to start with, was advised while serving in the British army that he switch to bowling off-spin to get into the strong Army team.