1988
Sixteen for 136, aged nineteen
Narendra Hirwani took eight for 61 and eight for 75 on his Test debut at Madras in January 1988. The card gives sixteen for 136, six stumpings for the wicketkeeper, and four debutants in the same match. The record for a first Test has not been passed since.
The Madras card of January 1988 lists four Test debutants: Ajay Sharma, Hirwani and Woorkeri Raman for India, Phil Simmons for West Indies. One of them bowled 33.5 overs in the match and took sixteen wickets for 136. The card’s result line reads India won by 255 runs, on the fourth day of five.
Three hundred and eighty-two
India chose to bat. Kapil Dev made 109 from 124 balls with 18 fours, Arun Lal 69, Mohammad Azharuddin 47, and India were 308 for six at the close of the first day and 382 all out on the second, Winston Davis four for 76.
Full scorecard: India v West Indies, 4th Test, Madras, 11–15 January 1988 →
What the innings looked like from the other end
India’s bowling table for West Indies’ first innings has six names. Kapil seven overs for 20 and a wicket, Amarnath three for 8, Shastri thirteen for 29 and a wicket, Arshad Ayub 28 overs for 47 and nothing, Sharma four for 9. Ayub bowled ten more overs than Hirwani in the innings and took no wicket; the two spinners were bowling at the same batters on the same pitch, and one of them took eight.
Eight for 61
West Indies were 147 for five at the close of the second day, Viv Richards 62 not out. The ledger of the innings: Simmons caught and bowled Kapil, 8. Haynes caught Kapil bowled Shastri, 13. Richie Richardson caught Azharuddin bowled Hirwani, 36. Richards bowled Hirwani, 68. Gus Logie caught Azharuddin bowled Hirwani, 12.
Carl Hooper leg before Hirwani, 2. Jeff Dujon stumped More bowled Hirwani, 24. Clyde Butts caught Raman bowled Hirwani, 0. Davis leg before Hirwani, 1. Courtney Walsh caught More bowled Hirwani, 8. Patrick Patterson not out.
Eighteen overs and three balls, three maidens, 61 runs, eight wickets. West Indies were all out for 184 after the rest day, 198 behind.
Eight for 75
Raman, on debut, made 83 in India’s second innings and Ravi Shastri declared at 217 for eight, setting 416. West Indies made 160 in 41.2 overs. Haynes leg before Hirwani, 6. Simmons caught Amarnath bowled Hirwani, 14. Richards caught Kapil bowled Hirwani, 4. Logie stumped More bowled Hirwani, 67 from 62 balls. Hooper stumped More bowled Hirwani, 8. Dujon stumped More bowled Hirwani, 2. Butts caught Sharma bowled Hirwani, 38. Davis stumped More bowled Hirwani, 7.
Fifteen overs and two balls, three maidens, 75 runs, eight wickets. The other two went to Arshad Ayub and to Raman, who bowled one over and had Walsh stumped. Kiran More stumped five in the innings and six in the match.
The record
Sixteen for 136 passed the sixteen for 137 that Bob Massie had taken on his own debut at Lord’s in 1972, by one run, and has stood as the best match figures in a first Test since. Hirwani was 19, having been born in October 1968. The card does not say either thing. It gives two bowling lines and a debutants list, and the two lines belong to a name on the list.
The series line reads four-match series drawn 1-1. The umpires were Piloo Reporter and Ram Gupta, and it is Test number 1089. Kapil, whose 109 came from 124 balls on the first day, is on the card as the only other Indian with a hundred, a five-wicket haul or a match award in his name, and here he has the hundred.
What the card holds
Eight wickets in each innings from the same leg-spinner, in his first Test. Six stumpings for the keeper, five of them off him. A 109 from Kapil and an 83 from another debutant. A target of 416 and a reply of 160 in 41.2 overs. And a match figure of sixteen for 136 that was a record on the day and, by the card’s own count of overs, took less than 34 of them.
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No. 19 in Unrepeatable, a series of 22.
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