Narendra Hirwani, Who Picked 16 Wickets On Test Debut, Holds The Record Of Longest Bowling Spell In Test Cricket

When Indian pacer Mohammed Siraj bowled a ceaseless nine-over spell on the first day of the recently concluded second Test against South Africa in Cape Town, fans aplenty wrongly considered him to have bowled the longest bowling spell in Test cricket.

If truth be told, Siraj bowling nine overs on the trot is nowhere close to the world record held by former Indian spinner Narendra Hirwani. During the third Test of India’s tour of England 1990 at The Oval, Hirwani bowled an elongated 59-over spell.

Trailing by 0-1, India needed to win the match in order to level a three-match series. Fueled by individual centuries by all-rounder Ravi Shastri and former captain Kapil Dev, India had scored 606/9d in the first innings. Having enforced the follow-on after bundling out England for 340, India were in a position to win a Test at this venue after almost a couple of decades but it wasn’t to be.

Shastri had to don the captain’s hat after Mohammad Azharuddin left the field in the second innings because of a sore heel. To make optimum use of the available foot marks, Shastri had decided to give an unprecedented lengthy spell to Hirwani.

In spite of the leg-spinner not able to pick wickets, Shastri, who himself bowled 28 overs without dismissing a single batter in the second innings, persisted with him in not the most sensible of moves. Although Hirwani’s bowling figures of 59-18-137-1 were economical, England didn’t really mind facing him without any discomfort to eventually be able to draw the match.

Hirwani, who played his first Test against West Indies a couple of years ago, had registered the best bowling figures on debut. Interestingly, the feat had been achieved under Shastri at the MA Chidambaram Stadium. Even though this world record hasn’t been breached in over three decades now, Hirwani was never able to bank on a sensational start to his international career. As a matter of fact, he played a lone Test in the next five years.

In his first four Tests, Hirwani scalped 36 wickets at home. A honeymoon period made way for struggles during overseas tours of West Indies and New Zealand. Furthermore, the emergence of legendary Anil Kumble further impacted Hirwani’s Test spot. For the unversed, Kumble had made his debut in Hirwani’s presence in the second Old Trafford Test of the above mentioned tour.

Longest Bowling Spell In Cricket

Keeping the unavailability of ball-by-ball commentary for a lot of matches in the past in mind, uncapped English pacer James Iremonger holds the record of bowling the longest bowling spell in first-class cricket as per ESPNCricinfo.

Playing for Nottinghamshire, his bowling figures of 66-28-81-3 in a drawn contest against Hampshire consisted of him bowling these many overs without being removed from the attack even once.

According to the same piece, a never-seen-before incident was brought to light by Combined Services’ duo of pacer Salahuddin and spinner Dildar Awan as they bowled 125.3 uninterrupted overs between them in a match-winning effort against Peshawar during a Quaid-e-Azam Trophy 1961-62 match.

Share this article

• Narendra Hirwani