Ten Wickets, Zero Runs Rare Feat

On 6 May 1922, Jennings Tune achieved one of the rarest feats in cricket history by taking ten wickets without conceding a single run. The performance came in a Yorkshire district-level tournament match, where Tune, playing for Cliff, bowled against East Rington. All ten dismissals were bowled, and his final bowling figures were recorded as 5 overs, 5 maidens, 0 runs, 10 wickets.

The achievement places Tune among a very small group of bowlers who have taken ten wickets in an innings without conceding any runs. Across various levels of recorded cricket, such instances are extremely uncommon, with only a limited number documented outside formally recognised first-class or international matches.

In international cricket, taking all ten wickets in a Test innings has been achieved by only three bowlers: Jim Laker, Anil Kumble, and Ajaz Patel. In first-class cricket, however, there have been several notable instances of ten-wicket hauls, including the record performance by Hedley Verity. In the 1932 County Championship, Verity took 10 wickets for 10 runs in Nottinghamshire’s second innings while playing for Yorkshire.

Beyond first-class records, instances of ten wickets for no runs have been recorded in non-first-class cricket on multiple occasions. Historical records indicate approximately 25 such cases in total. Among them, several stand out for their completeness, particularly those where all dismissals were bowled.

Jennings Tune’s 1922 performance is considered one of the earliest recorded examples. Decades later, in 1994, a similar feat was achieved in England’s Durham region during a youth tournament by 17-year-old Alex Kelly, who also took ten wickets without conceding a run. However, unlike Tune, not all of Kelly’s dismissals were bowled.

Another recorded instance occurred during the 1998–99 season in Brisbane, Australia, where D. Morton, playing for Bayside Mudies against a team named Ranatunga’s XI, took ten wickets for no runs in a local tournament match. As with Kelly’s performance, not all dismissals in this case were bowled.

Instances of bowlers taking all ten wickets in an innings also exist in first-class cricket, though they remain exceptionally rare. One of the earliest recorded examples is attributed to John Wisden, founder of the Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack. In 1850 at Lord’s, playing for the North against the South, Wisden took all ten wickets in the second innings, dismissing each batsman bowled.

The match ended with the South dismissed for 76 runs, and despite scoring 131 in their own innings, Wisden’s side won by an innings and 19 runs. The match was scheduled for three days but concluded within a single day. Detailed bowling figures such as overs bowled and runs conceded were not fully recorded in surviving scorecards of that period.

Notable Recorded Instances

These records illustrate the extreme rarity of ten-wicket hauls without conceding a run, particularly when all dismissals are achieved by bowling the batsmen out.