The Test Match Wicket Record Explained

Jim Laker holds the men’s Test record for the most wickets by one bowler in a match. The England off-spinner took 19 wickets for 90 runs against Australia at Old Trafford in 1956—nine in the first innings and all ten in the second. The women’s Test record is Shaiza Khan’s 13/226 for Pakistan against West Indies in 2004.

The notation 19/90 means 19 wickets taken at a cost of 90 runs across the match. It is not an innings figure, bowling average or career total.

Choose a challenger to compare with the record holder; the result explains the gap.

How Laker’s 19/90 Was Calculated

Laker’s record combines his bowling figures from Australia’s two innings in the fourth Test at Old Trafford. The match figures are obtained by adding the wickets and runs conceded in each innings.

Australia innings	Laker’s figures	Overs
First innings	9/37	16.4
Second innings	10/53	51.2
Match	19/90	68.0

England made 459 before dismissing Australia for 84. England enforced the follow-on and then bowled Australia out for 205, winning by an innings and 170 runs. The full scorecard records Laker’s 9/37 and 10/53.

The match aggregate is calculated in three parts:

• Wickets: 9 + 10 = 19
• Runs conceded: 37 + 53 = 90
• Overs: 16.4 + 51.2 = 68.0

The overs calculation needs cricket notation rather than ordinary decimal arithmetic. An innings figure of 16.4 means 16 complete overs and four balls, not 16.4 decimal overs. The four balls from the first innings and two balls from the second form another six-ball over. Laker therefore bowled exactly 68 overs across the match.

The 19 wickets were all credited to Laker as the bowler; they do not include run-outs or wickets taken by another England player. He dismissed nine of Australia’s ten batters in the first innings and all ten in the second.

Tony Lock, England’s left-arm spinner, took the only Australian wicket that Laker missed. Lock dismissed Jim Burke in the first innings. Every Australian wicket in the second innings went to Laker, giving him 19 of the 20 wickets available across the two completed innings.

The Second-Innings 10/53 Was A Separate Record Performance

Laker’s 10/53 in Australia’s second innings is a complete ten-wicket innings haul, sometimes described as a “perfect ten.” It means one bowler was credited with every opposition wicket in a completed innings.

That innings performance and the match record answer different statistical questions. The 10/53 describes only Australia’s second innings. The 19/90 combines the 10/53 with Laker’s first-innings 9/37.

The ICC’s account of the performance says Laker completed the ten-wicket innings when Len Maddocks was out lbw at 5:27pm on the final day. That wicket also raised his match aggregate from 18 to 19.

A bowler does not need to take all ten wickets in either innings to produce a large match haul. What made Laker’s performance unique at the top of the men’s table was the combination of nine wickets in one innings and ten in the other. Missing only one wicket across two completed Australian innings left him one short of taking every available wicket himself.

The Closest Men’s Test Match Hauls

Sydney Barnes is the nearest challenger in the men’s Test record table. Barnes took 17/159 for England against South Africa in Johannesburg in the Test that began on 26 December 1913. His total is two wickets below Laker’s 19.

No other bowler in the listed leading group reached 17. Narendra Hirwani, Bob Massie and Muttiah Muralitharan each took 16 wickets in a match, three fewer than Laker.

Rank	Bowler	Team	Match figures
1	Jim Laker	England	19/90
2	Sydney Barnes	England	17/159
3	Narendra Hirwani	India	16/136
4	Bob Massie	Australia	16/137
5	Muttiah Muralitharan	Sri Lanka	16/220

The matches represented by those figures were:

• Laker’s 19/90 against Australia in Manchester, starting 26 July 1956.
• Barnes’s 17/159 against South Africa in Johannesburg, starting 26 December 1913.
• Hirwani’s 16/136 against West Indies in Chennai, starting 11 January 1988.
• Massie’s 16/137 against England at Lord’s, starting 22 June 1972.
• Muralitharan’s 16/220 against England at The Oval, starting 27 August 1998.

Source: ESPNcricinfo’s men’s Test record table for best figures in a match, checked 30 September 2026.

The ordering shows how match bowling figures are ranked. Wickets are considered first. Runs conceded separate performances with the same wicket total.

That is why Hirwani’s 16/136 ranks immediately above Massie’s 16/137: both took 16 wickets, but Hirwani conceded one fewer run. Muralitharan’s 16/220 follows them because his wicket total is also 16 and he conceded more runs.

Runs conceded do not move a lower wicket total above a higher one. Hirwani’s 16/136 cost fewer runs than Barnes’s 17/159, but Barnes ranks higher because he took one more wicket. In the same way, the difference between Laker and Barnes is established first by 19 wickets against 17, rather than by their respective run costs.

Match Figures Cover Both Opposition Innings

A Test match bowling analysis adds together a bowler’s returns from every innings in that match. In Laker’s case, Australia completed two innings, so both 9/37 and 10/53 count toward his record.

An innings analysis and a match analysis can therefore appear together on the same scorecard without being interchangeable:

• 9/37 is Laker’s first-innings analysis.
• 10/53 is his second-innings analysis.
• 19/90 is his complete match analysis.

The number before the slash is always the wickets credited to the bowler. The number after the slash is the runs conceded by that bowler. Team extras that are not charged to the bowler do not become part of the bowling analysis merely because they contribute to the innings total.

The match result is also separate from the individual bowling record. Laker’s figures occurred in an England victory by an innings and 170 runs, but the record category ranks the bowler’s wickets and runs rather than the size of the team’s win.

This record should not be confused with the highest career wicket totals in men’s Tests. A match haul measures one performance across a single Test; a career total accumulates wickets across every Test a bowler plays.

The distinction also matters when assessing the greatest Test bowlers. A record match demonstrates the peak reached in one game. Career comparisons also need longevity, bowling average, strike rate and conditions, none of which is represented fully by one match aggregate.

Shaiza Khan Holds The Women’s Test Record

Women’s Test records are maintained separately from the men’s table. Pakistan captain Shaiza Khan holds the women’s record with 13/226 against West Indies in Karachi in March 2004.

Shaiza took 7/59 in West Indies’ first innings and 6/167 in the second. Adding those analyses gives the record aggregate:

• Wickets: 7 + 6 = 13
• Runs conceded: 59 + 167 = 226

Pakistan enforced the follow-on, but the match was drawn, as the scorecard records. The result does not alter Shaiza’s position in the individual match-bowling table.

The Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians record list places Shaiza’s 13/226 ahead of Ashleigh Gardner’s 12/165. Shaiza leads by one wicket, even though Gardner conceded fewer runs, because wicket totals determine the order before runs conceded are used as a tiebreaker.

The ICC also identifies 13/226 as the women’s Test benchmark. It should not be merged with Laker’s 19/90 into a single record table because the published men’s and women’s Test categories are separate.

The Record Depends On The Category Being Asked

For the unqualified men’s Test statistic, the answer is Jim Laker, 19/90 for England against Australia at Old Trafford in 1956. His innings breakdown was 9/37 and 10/53.

For women’s Tests, the answer is Shaiza Khan, 13/226 for Pakistan against West Indies in Karachi in 2004. Her innings breakdown was 7/59 and 6/167.

For a single Test innings rather than a full match, Laker’s relevant figure from this performance is 10/53, not 19/90. For a career record, neither match figure is the appropriate measure; career wickets must be used instead.