Five-wicket haul
Cricket terminology
In cricket, a five-wicket haul (also known as a "five–for" or "fifer") occurs when a bowler takes five or more wickets in a single innings, commonly abbreviated as 5wI. Taking five wickets is regarded as a notable achievement, equivalent to a century by a batter. In 2001, Glenn McGrath invented the tradition of a bowler raising the ball to the crowd at the completion of a five-wicket haul.
Taking a five-wicket haul at Lord's earns the bowler a place on the Lord's honours boards.
Records
As of 2025, only thirteen cricketers have taken a five-wicket haul in all three international formats of the game (Test cricket, One Day International and Twenty20 International): Sri Lanka's Ajantha Mendis and Lasith Malinga, India's Bhuvneshwar Kumar, and Kuldeep Yadav, New Zealand's Tim Southee, South Africa's Imran Tahir and Lungi Ngidi, West Indies' Jason Holder and Alzarri Joseph, Bangladesh's Shakib Al Hasan, Pakistan's Umar Gul and Hasan Ali, and Afghanistan's Rashid Khan.
In 2018, Afghan cricketer Mujeeb Zadran, aged 16, became the youngest bowler to take a five-wicket haul in an ODI. In 2019, Pakistani cricketer Naseem Shah, also aged 16, became the youngest bowler to take a five-wicket haul in a Test match. Afghan cricketer Rashid Khan is the youngest bowler to take a five-wicket haul in a T20 international match; he was 18 at the time.
Sri Lankan Muttiah Muralitharan has taken the most five-wicket hauls in Test matches with 67, and Pakistani Waqar Younis has taken the most five-wicket hauls in ODIs with 13. The record for most five-wicket hauls in T20Is is 4, which has been achieved by Bahraini cricketer Rizwan Butt.
“Five-wicket haul” enters the record as cricket terminology. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Five-wicket, haul and Cricket can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Five-wicket haul” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Five-wicket, haul and Cricket provides the most credible route into that argument.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q60739855. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2001, 2025, 2018 and 2019.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Five-wicket haul”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Five-wicket haul primary sources, Five-wicket haul archive and Five-wicket research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Five-wicket haul”?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Five-wicket haul” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.