All ten wickets for Kumble
Twenty one years ago, Indian spinner Anil Kumble became only the second bowler ever to take all ten wickets in a Test match innings… returning figures of 10 for 74 against Pakistan in Delhi in 1999.
This epic performance was rated by cricket’s almanac, Wisden, as the second best "bowling performance of all time"… following Jim Laker’s achievement of 10-53 for England against Australia at Old Trafford in 1956.
It has since been said that once Kumble had got nine wickets, his team-mate Javagal Srinath started bowling wide of the stumps so that Kumble could take the final wicket and also India’s outfield players were ‘told’ nicely, not to take any a catch off another bowler so that Kumble could claim all ten wickets.
Kumble’s achievement was subsequently commemorated by naming a traffic circle in Bengaluru after him and gifting him a car with the customized license plate: KA-10-N-10.
Facts
There have so far been 17 ninewicket hauls in a Test Match innings,
The first bowler to achieve the feat was England bowler George Lohmann against South Africa in 1896, while the most recent is Keshav Maharaj for South Africa against Sri Lanka in 2018. And one bowler has achieved the feat twice.
These are the other ninewicket stars:
Sydney Barnes (England) 9103 v. South Africa, 1913
Arthur Mailey (Australia) 9-121 v. England, 1921
Jim Laker (England) 9-37 v. Australia, 1956
Hugh Tayfield (South Africa) 9-113 v. England, 1957
Subhash Gupte (India) 9-102 v. West Indies, 1958
Jasubhai Patel (India) 9-69 v. Australia, 1959.
Jack Noreiga (West Indies) 9-95 v. India, 1971.
Sarfraz Nawaz (Pakistan) 986 v. Australia, 1979
Kapil Dev (India) 9-83 v. West Indies, 1983
Richard Hadlee (New Zealand) 9-52 v. Australia, 1985
Abdul Qadir (Pakistan) 9-56 v. England, 1987
Devon Malcolm (England) 9-57 v. South Africa, 1994
Muttiah Muralitharan (Sri Lanka) 9-65 v. England, 1998
Muttiah Muralitharan 9/51 v. Zimbabwe, 2002.
Rangana Herath (Sri Lanka) 9-127 v. Pakistan, 2014
NB: ‘Spin King’ Laker, of course, is the only bowler ever to take 19 wickets in a single Test Match (1956). His Surrey team-mate Tony Lock denied him a perfect 20.