Australian club bowler scalps 10 wickets in an innings

Nov 7, 2014

Mundaring Cricket Club bowler Chris Thomas bowled out Helena Valley all by himself – finishing the game with the remarkable figures of 10 wickets for just five runs, a  rare feat and has happened just twice in Test cricket’s 2000-odd year old history.

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The 44-year-old who describes himself as a “swing bowler with a box of tricks” has played for the Mundaring club for 26 seasons and had a previous best of six wickets for 26 runs, according to reports of inmycommunity.com.au. “I think it’s a freak occurrence to get 10 wickets — the other bowlers have to bowl well to build pressure without actually taking a wicket themselves,” he said.

Manmeet Singh was building pressure at the opposite end, with a tidy seven-over spell of none for 16 from his seven overs, which included two maidens. “You’ve just got to have a bit of luck, I guess,” Thomas said. The remarkable spell against a hapless Helena Valley was split over two weekends.

After Mundaring was bowled out for 190, it was Helena Valley’s turn to bat, hoping to preserve wickets for the next weekend. But Thomas sent them reeling with seven wickets, leaving them  seven down for 24 at the end of Day One. Thomas wasn’t going to play on day two last weekend because of a wedding commitment, but quickly arranged to be there for the first 45 minutes of play in an attempt to bag a couple more wickets. He quickly scalped the last three wickets, rolling out Helena Valley for just 34 and even had time to take another wicket when Helena Valley followed on before rushing off to the wedding.

Thomas said the team was ecstatic when he snared the tenth 10th wicket with the third ball of his ninth over. “For me, it was relief and excitement all at the same time — I don’t actually remember walking off the ground,” he said. In the first two games of the season, Thomas has accumulated 16 wickets at an average of 4.5.