Cricket is a sport where the team scoring the maximum number of runs wins the match. These runs are scored by a team of eleven who are pitched against a team of same number of players who field and bowl. If the bowling side manages to take ten wickets of the batting side, then the innings come to a close. The bowling side then becomes the batting side and aims to score more runs than the team who batted first to win the match.
In order to get the wickets of the batting side, the bowling side uses multiple bowlers. When a bowler is responsible for taking the wickets of all ten batters in an innings, then he or she is said to achieve a ten-wicket haul. In test cricket, both teams bat twice. If a bowler’s total tally of wickets is 10 or more, across both innings of the match, then they are said to achieve the 10w haul.
A 10w haul is almost unattainable in limited overs cricket like One Day International and T20s. This is because unlike test cricket, bowlers in limited-overs can bowl only a said number of overs. In ODIs and T20s, bowlers cannot bowl more than 10 and 4 overs respectively.
Muttiah Muralidharan of Sri Lanka holds the record for taking the most wickets in test cricket – 800. On 22 instances he bagged 10 or more wickets in a single test match which too is a world record. However, the Sri Lankan never took 10 wickets in a single innings. Only three players have achieved the feat of getting all ten batters out in test cricket. These players are Jim Laker, Anil Kumble and Ajaz Patel.