Here are the TEN bowlers to have done it before Philander . . .
1. Australia's Fred 'Demon' Spofforth 5 for 37 (before lunch) - Australia 1879- On : 18th Jan 1879
- Vs : England
- At : Melbourne
- Victims : George Ulyette, AN Hornby, Vernon Royale, Francis McKinnon and Tom Emmett.
The last three in the first ever Test hat-trick had England reeling at 7 for 26.
Spofforth clean bowled the first four.
England recovered to 113 but lost by 10 wickets with Spofforth taking 6 for 48 in the first and 7 for 62 in the second innings.
This was just the third ever Test match.
2. England's Tom Richardson 6 for 39 - England 1896- On : 22nd June 1896
- Vs : Australia
- At : Lord's
- Victims : Joe Darling, Harry Trott, Syd Gregory, Harry Graham, Hugh Trumble and Ernie jones.
Bowling unchanged in an England innings of 53 all out (before lunch), Richardson and Lohmann had figures of
Code:
Bowling O M R W Econ
T Richardson 11.3 3 39 6 4.03
GA Lohmann 11 6 13 3 1.41
Richardson clean bowled all his six victims.
He took another five wickets in the second innings but this time Australia batted much better and scored 347 but lost the match by six wickets.
3. England's Colin Blythe 5 for 32 - South Africa 1906
- On : 24th March 1906
- Vs : South Africa
- At : Cape Town
- Victims : Tanctred, Shalders, Nourse, Hathorne and Sinclair
Blythe took 6 for 68 in this innings and 11 for 118 in the match. England won by four wickets after trailing on the first innings.
Although a left arm spinner, Blythe opened the bowling in both innings for what was really a sub-standard England side. He was the only real star from the regular Test side.
4 . England's Syd Barnes 5 for 25 - South Africa 1913
- On : 26th December 1913
- Vs : South Africa
- At : Johannesburg
- Victims : Zulch, Hands, Beaumont, Herbie Taylor and Dave Nourse
Barnes took 8 for 56 in the first innings and 9 for 103 in the second.
England won by innings
Two world wars, 37 years, nearly 200 Test matches and a complete change in the game's personnel later, in 1950 came the next five for before lunch on the first day of a Test match. The standard of wickets around the world had improved and low scoring was not very common. From now on the feat would be performed after big gaps.
All those who had performed this feat before were long gone from this life except for 77 year old Syd Barnes who, I suspect, must have been present at Old Trafoord that summer of 1950 to see a small, bespectacled man perform the feat.
5. West Indies' Alf Valentine 5 for 34 - England 1950
- On : 8th June 1950
- Vs : England
- At : Old Trafford
- Victims : Bill Edrich, Reg Simpson, Hubert Doggart, Norman Yardley and Tom Dollery
.
After taking 5 for 34 before lunch in 17 overs, Valentine went on to take another three in the innings although he had to bowl 50 overs to take his 8 for 104.
The wickets included Len Hutton who had retired hurt before Valentine came on to bowl first change as well as the top scorer of England's innings, keeper Godfrey Evans who scored a century and in partnership with Tevor Bailey (82 ot out) saved England from the disastrous 5 for 88 where Valentine had brought them with his first spell.
Valentine, thus, became the first bowler to perform this feat even though he did not open the attack.
He took 11 wickets in the match though England won by 200 runs. He thus also became the first bowler to perform this feat in a losing cause.
6. Australia'a Graham McKenzie 6 for 34 - Australia 1967
- On : 30th Dec 1967
- Vs : India
- At : MCG
- Victims : Dilip Sardesai, Abid Ali, Ajit Wadekar, Farroukh Engineer, Chandu Borde and V Subramanya
On a helpful wicket, Pataudi opted to bat having no new ball bowlers worth mentioning. Mckenzie showed up the decision by knocking back these six batsmen and knocking Surti on the head to retire hurt - all before lunch.
He took one more wicket in that first innings and another three in the second. Australia won by an innings.
7. India's Maninder Singh 5 for 11 - India 1987
- On : 13th March 1987
- Vs : Pakistan
- At : Chinnaswamy Stadium Bangalore
- Victims : Javed Miandad, Manzoor Elahi, Saleem Malik, Imran Khan and Wasim Akram.
After Kapil Dev had sent back both openers, Maninder bowling second change (after Binny and Amarnath at the end opposite Kapil's) took five for 11 in just 5 overs and 3 balls to left Pakistan reeling at lunch. He came back after lunch to end with 7 for 27 in the innings and Pakistan were bowled out for 117.
He took another 3 wickets in the second inningsbut India fell 16 short of the 221 runs Pakistan left them to score.
Sunil Gavaskaar, in his last Test innings scored a miraculous 96 on a mine field of a wicket but Pakistani spinners proved more than a handful for every other Indian batsman.
Thus the second bowler to perform the feat while not opening the attack (like Valentine before him) also, curiously, ended up on the losing side.
Maninder's five for 11 were the most devastating of all the figures for those who took a five -fer in the first session of a test match till then.
8. New Zealand's Chris Martin 5 for 26 - NZL 2005
- On : 11th April 2005
- Vs : Sri Lanka
- At : Wellington
- Victims : Attapattu, Sangakarra, Jayawardhane, Jayasuriya and Dilshan
Martin came back to claim a sixth wicket even as Sri Lanka recovered to a somewhat respectable 211. He took just one more wicket in the second innings but there the Kiwis had done enough with the bat and had Kyle Mills, Franklin and Astle in the attack to help them win by an innings.
9. New Zealand's Shane Bond 5 for 11 - Zimbabwe 2005
- On : 15h August 2005
- Vs : Zimbabwe
- At : Bulawayo
- Victims : Ebrahim, Carlisle, Masakadza, Taylor and Streak
Bond's devastating bowling came just four months after his countryman Chris Martin's earlier the same year. This is the only instance of two such feats in the same year.
Bond's 5 for 11 also equalled Maninder's deadly figures for the fewest runs for the five wickets (or more) before lunch on the first day.
He took another wicket after lunch and four more in the second innings while NZL won by an innings.
10. South African Dale Steyn 5 for 23 - India 2008
- On : 3rd April 2008
- Vs : India
- At : Motera, Ahmedabad
- Victims : Sehwag, Dravid, Harbhajan, RP Singh and Sreesanth
Combining with Ntini (3 for 18) and Morne Morkel (2 for 20), Steyn helped dismiss India before lunch for 76 runs in just 20 overs.
He took 3 more wickets in the second innings as his side won the match by an innings.
And then came Philander . . . |
