10 Greatest Bowling Performances of All Time in a Test Series

#1 Jim Laker: 46 wickets at 9.61 vs Australia (1956)

Jim Laker

For the first half of his career, Jim Laker was a rather unremarkable bowler. While he was successful at county level, he was inconsistent when picked for England, and found himself in and out of the national team for the best part of the decade.

But it might not have solely been his inconsistent performances that led the selectors to doubt him as Laker had a rather uninspiring bowling action. Laker bowled his off-breaks in a very round-arm manner, and seemed to come to almost a complete halt at the crease, with barely any follow-through.

England also had plenty of quality players to pick from at this time. 1953 saw them win the Ashes for the first time post World War 2. They then went one better and won 3-1 in Australia in 1954-55, with Laker taking no part in the series.

However, by 1956, Australia had a formidable blend of young and old talent, with the likes of Keith Miller, Neil Harvey, Ray Lindwall, Alan Davidson and Richie Benaud in their side.

Laker, meanwhile, had only played one Test in just under two years, but the English selectors decided to give him one more chance. This proved to be a rather good decision.

Laker started strongly, taking 4/58 and 2/29 in the rain-effected first Test. He played well again in the second Test, but only managed three wickets as Australia took a 1-0 lead. At the time, England fans probably weren't too optimistic. While they had won the previous two Ashes, Keith Miller was looking deadly and Australia's overabundance of all-rounders meant they batted incredibly deep with Alan Davidson actually batting at 11 in the first Test.

However, what Laker would achieve in the games to follow were performances the likes of which had never been seen in cricket before, and haven't been seen since.

Laker took 30 wickets in the next two Tests alone, taking 11/113 at Headingly, and then following up with a record 19/90 at Old Trafford. In two Tests Laker had taken more wickets than he had taken in any of his eight years in Test cricket and twice as many as the next best English bowler would take in the entire series.

Laker's 19/90 remains one of the most extraordinary Test cricketing records to date. In a single game he managed what are still the first and fourth best bowling figures in an innings in Test cricket history. Furthermore, this was on a pitch the Australian spinners took a combined total of 6/274.

About half a century later, Neil Harvey described the ball Laker dismissed him with in the first innings to be Shane Warne to Mike Gatting in reverse.

Weather interfered again when it was time for the final Test, but Laker still managed to take seven wickets to lift his series tally to 46. Had so much of the series not been lost to rain, or had it been a six-match series, Laker would almost definitely have become the first bowler to take 50 wickets in a series.

Laker's 1956 Ashes was obscenely good. He didn't just defeat the Australian batsmen, but also cricket logic.