Narendra Hirwani - superb 16/136 in his first Test helped India beat Windies by 255 runs

by A. C. de Silva

CRICKET: Call this a record! Narendra Hirwani, the Indian right-arm leg-spinner, in his first Test at Chepauk, Madras grabbed a phenomenal haul of 16 wickets for 136 runs which helped India to beat the West Indies by 255 runs. The match was played on January 11,12,14 and 15 in 1988.

Once the happy hunting ground for spinners, the track had drifted away from its turning, spinning ways for years until the pitch maker thought the turning had come to answer a national call of duty.

The Indian team on this occasion was far superior to the West Indies outfit and newcomer Hirwani equalled a world record haul of 16 wickets on debut in Tests and anyone who can capture such a large haul of wickets on debut, must have talent in him - and loads of it.

Hirwani’s debut was in the final Test in the 1988 Test series against the West Indies in Madras. The wicket was under prepared. India won an important toss and made 382 in their first innings with Kapil Dev making 109, J. Arun Lal 69 and M. Azharuddin 47.

Hirwani came off with flying colours with three of the five West Indies wickets to fall on the second day. Then shocks came on the third morning with Hirwani clean bowling Vivian Richards with a googly which the batsman failed to pick, and dismissed the remaining four batsmen to finish with 8 for 61. This made him only the fourth bowler to take eight wickets in an innings on debut.

Set 416 to win in the second innings, West Indies were shot out in about 40 overs.

The batsmen tried to hit out, the result of which was five stumpings for the wicket-keeper Kiran More. Hirwani took 8 for 75, for match figures of 16 for 136. This bettered the record of Bob Massie who had taken 16 for 137 on his debut in 1972, and this still a record as of 2008 (update).

Hirwani won the man of the series in a three-nation tournament in Sharjah a few months later, capturing 10 wickets in three matches.

More success followed in the home series against New Zealand the next year. The pitches offered spin and Hirwani took 20 wickets in three Tests and his partner Arshad Ayub 21. In his first four Tests he had taken 36 wickets, the most by any bowler at this stage of their career.

Career - a turn for the worse

His career took a turn for the worse in the tour of the West Indies in 1989 - 90. The West Indies batsmen deliberately attacked his bowling and even at Port of Spain where the wicket helped spinners, he could do little.

Thereafter he had little success in his international career. Hirwani was too slow in the air to cause trouble, except on wickets which turned sharply.

One of the few memorable performances was in the last league match of the 1991-92 World Series Cup. India needed to beat West Indies to qualify for the final. Picked unexpectedly, Hirwani played an important part with a spell in which he had Brian Lara stumped off a flipper and Richie Richardson leg before wicket on the backfoot with a leg break. This was not sufficient to find him a place in the team for the World Cup that followed.

His next chance came in a Test against New Zealand four years later. In a rain affected match, he took 6 for 59. He toured England in 1996 and played two more Tests against South Africa at home. In 2001, he was picked in the 14 to play Australia at home, but never made the final eleven.

Pitch under- prepared

After the series, he went to the press, criticising Indian captain Sourav Ganguly for not choosing him.

Narendra Hirwani continued to be a prominent bowler in domestic cricket. He started as a leg-spinner in Test cricket before Shane Warne made leg-spin fashionable again.

His Test career started with an almighty bang when, as a bespectacled 19-year-old, he took those 16 wickets on his debut against the West Indies at Madras in 1987-88. “He was aided, it must be stressed, by a deplorably under-prepared pitch,” said Wisden’s correspondent, Dicky Rutnagur, and though Hirwani took 20 further wickets in his next three Test appearances, his fortunes changed when he left the spin-friendly surfaces of India.

The magic never quite returned, and the arrival of Anil Kumble sentenced him largely to domestic cricket. However, he was a stalwart on the domestic circuit, finishing with 723 wickets from 167 matches, over 400 of which came for his home state of Madhya Pradesh.

In the 1996-97 season he played for Bengal, taking 29 wickets at 23.13. He retired in 2006, ending a 23-year first-class career, and was appointed to the national selection panel in 2008.

Coming back to the epoch-making match where Hirwani had those magic figures, he seized the chance of showing off his talent at the difficult and dying art of legspin, the one vital difference between the sides was that India had a batsman like Kapil Dev.

Fine knock by Kapil

The century by Kapil Dev (109) and other contributions from Arun Lal (69), Azharuddin (47) and Ajay Sharma (30) helped India to make 382 in the first innings.

The West Indies just had no answer to the spin bowling of Hirwani who bowled splendidly to take 8 for 61 in the first innings and the West Indies were all out for 184 in the first innings. Vivian Richards was the most impressive of the West Indies batsman and made 68.

India had a fine knock of 83 by W. V. Raman in the second innings and they pushed the score along to 217 for 8 wickets that gave them a overall lead of 599 runs.

For the West Indians, Walsh was the most impressive bowler. He captured 3 for 85 in India’s first innings total of 382. Davis too bowled well to take 4 for 76. Then in the second innings Walsh had 4 for 55 and India declared at 217 for 8 wickets.

The West Indians had quite a big target - 416 to win which looked a big task after their pathetic batting in the first innings where they were all out for 184. In the second innings, the West Indians fared worse and were all out for 160 with only Gus Logie making some impression by making 67 while C. Butts made 38.