Who has recorded the best figures by a debutant Test bowler?
(18 October 2002)

India, when they took the field in the fourth and final Test of the 1987-88 series against the West Indies , knew that they had to win the match if they were to level the series. Their cause was helped a great deal when they found the pitch to be woefully under-prepared. Stand-in skipper Ravi Shastri, deputising for Dilip Vengarkar, consequently had not hesitation in batting first after winning the toss.

Kapil Dev made a quick-fire hundred, Arun Lal 69 and Mohammad Azharuddin 47 as India posted an impressive 382 in their first innings. With the pitch beginning to turn prodigiously, the West Indies had their task cut out from there on. After losing both their openers with just 47 on the board, the visitors recovered through a 51-run third wicket partnership between Viv Richards (68) and Richardson (36). But, then, 19-year-old debutant Narender Hirwani began to wreak havoc. Extracting menacing bounce and turn from a responsive pitch, the mop-haired, bespectacled leg-spinner claimed eight West Indies wickets for just 61 runs to restrict them to just 184.

Another Test debutant WV Raman made 83 on his home ground as India declared after scoring 217-8 in their second essay. By now the wicket was a veritable dust bowl, and the West Indies certainly did not dare to make the mistake of fancying their chances when they began the fourth innings, needing 316 in a little under two days.

With spin being introduced almost at the start, their collapse was to prove swift. Hirwani, who began by claiming Desmond Haynes, went on to add another eight-wicket haul, this time for 75 runs, as the visitors were bundled out for just 160. With no Man of the Match awards on offer, he, though, had to be content with the honour of having returned the best figures by a debutant bowler in Test cricket - his 16-136 helping him eclipse Australian Bob Massie's 16-137 by the slenderest of margins.