Sir Richard Hadlee is one of the greatest Test Bowlers of all time and arguably the greatest New Zealand cricketer of all time because of what he was able to do throughout his career and the role model he became for thousands of young New Zealand cricket players to take up this sport and represent their nation with pride and do the best they can and that they can also become among the best in the world if they work hard at their game.

Sir Richard Hadlee was mostly known by his exploits in test cricket where he was the record holder with 431 wickets until it was broken by the great Kapil Dev from India. He has given so many match winning and awe inspiring performances that selecting the Top 5 among them is seriously not fair but that’s what we do here. 

Richard Hadlee Bowling Stats:

So let’s see the Top 5 Best bowling performances by Sir Richard Hadlee.

5/65 and 6/90 vs Australia at Perth (1985)

It was the era of Richard Hadlee and we all were living in it and this time it was the time of the mighty Aussies to feel the Wrath of this once in a lifetime bowler. It was the third test of the series with the series at 1-1 and in this test match New Zealand were bowled out for 203 but then Richard Hadlee gave the reply from the New Zealand side picking up 5/65 in the first innings and restricting the Aussies to 299 and then in the second innings he picked up 6/90 which made him take 11 wickets in the whole match which is a sensational effort by the all time great and New Zealand won the match and series.

5/34 and 6/68 vs West Indies at Dunedin (1980)

This performance proves the greatness of this extraordinary cricketer as he produced this epic performance against the best West Indies team of the 1980s which had a destructive batting line-up and he picked up 5 Wickets for just 34 runs in the first innings to restrict the West Indies and then in the second innings he bettered his performance by picking up 6 wickets which helped New Zealand win the match and beat the mighty West Indies.

6/26 vs England at Wellington (1978)

This was another incredible performance by the best New Zealand bowler ever as he ran through the great England batting line-up in the second innings and he got 6 wickets as a result for his incredible skills and hard work and the England batters had no clue what he was bowling in this innings and they crumbled and New Zealand won the match by 72 runs in an unlikely win against England and it was all thanks to Sir Richard Hadlee.

7/23 vs India at Wellington (1976)

This was one of his best bowling performances ever in test cricket and it came against a good Indian team which toured New Zealand in 1976. In the first innings of this test match he got 4 Wickets but it was the second innings heroics that was the most memorable in his career when he gave away only 23 runs and got 7 Indian wickets and the batters were looking absolutely helpless and as a result New Zealand won the match quite easily. It was one of his most memorable bowling performances.

9/52 vs Australia at Brisbane (1985): Richard Hadlee Best Bowling Figures in Test

This was the best ever performance by Sir Richard Hadlee in his entire career as he got 9 wickets in a single innings against Australia and it was a true sight to behold as one by one the Aussie batters were getting out by him and he was one wicket away from joining the most exclusive club of getting all 10 Wickets in a single Innings but this incredible performance solidified his greatest status and he was celebrated in New Zealand as a hero throughout his career.