0 - Visiting bowlers to have better figures than Keshav Maharaj in an innings in Sri Lanka. Maharaj currently has 8 for 116 going past Yasir Shah's 7 for 76 against Sri Lanka in Galle in 2015. Maharaj's figures are also the best for South Africa against Sri Lanka in Tests, going past the 7 for 81 taken by Marchant de Lange against Sri Lanka in Durban in 2011.
1 - South African spinner with better bowling figures than Maharaj in a Test innings. Former offspinner Hugh Tayfield occupies the top two positions in this list. Maharaj is the first spinner from South Africa since 1957, and the first bowler from South Africa since Lance Klusener in 1996 to take eight wickets in an innings in a Test. Maharaj now holds the records for the third-best bowling figures for South Africa since their readmission.
1996 - The last instance of a spinner from South Africa before Maharaj to take six or more wickets in the first innings of a Test. Paul Adams took 6 for 55 against India in Kanpur. Maharaj is only the third left-arm orthodox spinner to take eight wickets in an innings, after Vinoo Mankad and Alf Valentine.
5 - Bowlers to have taken more than six wickets on day 1 of a Test in the last 10 years. Nathan Lyon has the best figures, of 8 for 50, which he took against India last year in Bengaluru. In the last 10 years, Maharaj's 8 for 116 are the second-best figures for any bowler from South Africa in one day, after Dale Steyn's 8 for 57 on day 3 against India in 2010 (taken across two innings but on the same day).
2 - Bowlers other than Maharaj to take eight wickets in an innings against Sri Lanka in Tests. Imran Khan was the first to do so, in 1982, when he took 8 for 58 in Lahore, while the other was Shanon Gabriel who took 8 for 62 last month at St Lucia.