Fred Trueman was an English cricketer, an "aggressive" [1] fast bowler widely known as "Fiery Fred". [1] He is generally acknowledged to have been one of the greatest bowlers in cricket history. [1] [2] He represented England in 67 Test matches, and was the first bowler to take 300 wickets in a Test career, taking twelve years and 65 Tests to reach the landmark. [3]
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Trueman's wicket tally included seventeen five-wicket hauls (also known as "five-fors" or "fifers") [4] [5] which refer to a bowler taking five or more wickets in a single innings. This is regarded as a notable achievement, [4] as of October 2024 [update] , only 54 bowlers have taken 15 or more five-wicket hauls at international level in their cricketing careers. [6] [7] Trueman's seventeen five-wicket hauls places him joint-third in a list of most five-wicket hauls by England Test players, behind Ian Botham and Sydney Barnes. [8] It includes three instances of him taking five or more wickets in each innings of the same Test match, and only one of the Tests in which he took a five-for ended in defeat for England.
His first five-for came in July 1952 against India in only his third Test match. [9] It was also his career-best performance, eight wickets while conceding 31 runs, which remains the ninth most successful bowling figures by an England player. [10] Five of his five-wicket hauls were taken against Australia, and six came against the West Indies. Four of the latter came during the 1963 West Indies tour of England, across which he took a career-best 34 wickets. [11] He is joint-third in a tally of most five-fors taken against the West Indies in Test matches. [12] He did not get the opportunity to play in One Day International cricket as it was not introduced until the 1970–1971 cricket season, several years after his retirement. [13]
