The historic country of Surrey in South London is famous for its cricket heritage. Surrey County Cricket Club was established in 1845 but the club has been taking part in first-class cricket since the 18th century. They play their home matches in the historic Oval ground. One of the oldest test grounds of England, the Oval has a distinctive presence and is a witness of many great moments in world cricket including the birth of Ashes. Great players like Jack Hobbs and Alec Stewart played for Surrey and achieved some astonishing career milestones.
Another great player to play for Surrey with lots of success was Jim Laker. The English off-spinner during the 1950s is always remembered for his 19 for 90 against the Australians in the 1956 Old Trafford test match. But that was not his only instance of running through an innings of his own. Very interestingly he did give a preview of his capability to the same Australians a few months back in the same tour.
Australians were on a long tour of England during 1956 summer and as was the norm those days they were expected to play many matches against various counties and other teams. Their fifth practice match was at the Oval against Surrey starting on 16th May 1956. Lake was one of the strongest players of the team and hence despite having a difficult previous night with his unwell daughter his captain insisted him to play.
The match went pretty eventless in the first session. Laker was brought after the Australian openers built a strong foundation and he could take only one wicket before lunch. That was the solitary wicket loss in that session. But things started to move in the middle session and Australians were strangled by Laker and his partner Tony Lock. However like the test match to follow, here also Lock bowled tightly without much luck and by tea, Australia were four down, all going to Laker.
A tired Laker started the post-tea session with three wickets in his first two overs. With only three wickets to go, the news started spreading and a crowd started to gather. Laker took two more to take his tally to nine in the innings. The eleventh batsman was Jack Wilson who joined Keith Miller, who tried to shield the tail-ender but as soon as Laker got a chance to bowl to Wilson he managed to get him to sneak behind the wicket and completed his ten-wicket haul in the innings.
It was a great achievement against a touring international team and praise came from all the corners. However, no one knew at that time that a greater achievement would come in ten weeks time.
Read here about the 19 wickets vs Australia in Ashes just after 10 weeks to this match.
