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What is the highest opening partnership in all T20 cricket?

Hazratullah Zazai's 162 not out took Afghanistan to a world-record total Getty Images

I know Quinton de Kock and KL Rahul's stand of 210 is an IPL record. But was it the best in all T20 cricket? And how about 50 overs? asked Lalith Ahluwalia from India
That unbroken opening stand of 210 by Quinton de Kock and KL Rahul for Lucknow Super Giants in what turned out to be a nerve-shredding match against Kolkata Knight Riders in Navi Mumbai last week broke the previous record for the highest first-wicket partnership in the IPL, the 185 of Jonny Bairstow and David Warner for Sunrisers Hyderabad against Royal Challengers Bangalore in Hyderabad in 2019; only two second-wicket stands between Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers for RCB lie ahead on the overall IPL list.

There have been four higher opening partnerships in all senior T20 matches, the highest being 236 by Hazratullah Zazai and Usman Ghani for Afghanistan against Ireland in Dehradun in 2018-19. The List A first-wicket record remains an unbroken stand of 367, by Morne van Wyk and Cameron Delport for the Dolphins against the Knights in South Africa's One-Day Cup in Bloemfontein in 2014-15.

Angelo Mathews was out for 199 and then a duck in the recent Test in Bangladesh. Has anyone completed this particular double before? asked Ajit Silva from Sri Lanka
In the first innings of the first Test in Chattogram last week, Sri Lanka's Angelo Mathews became the 12th man to be dismissed for 199 in a Test. However, his second-innings duck made him the first to do this particular double.

Six men have made 99 and 0 in the same Test: India's Pankaj Roy (vs Australia in Delhi in 1959-60), Geoff Boycott (England vs Australia in Perth in 1979-80, Andrew Hall of South Africa (vs England at Headingley in 2003, and the Pakistan trio of Mushtaq Mohammad (vs England in Karachi in 1972-73), Misbah-ul-Haq (vs West Indies in Bridgetown in 2017), and Babar Azam (vs Australia in Abu Dhabi in 2018-19). Boycott and Hall both made 99 not out.

Mohammed Shami played in all of Gujarat Titans' games in the IPL round-robin, but didn't bat - has anyone else managed this? asked Sheik Nazeeb via Facebook
It's true that Mohammed Shami played in all 14 of Gujarat Titans' matches in the league phase of this season's IPL, without being required to bat. In doing so he reprised the feat of fellow seamers Mustafizur Rahman and Mohit Sharma. The "Fizz" played 16 matches for Sunrisers in 2016 - 14 of them in the group stage - without batting at all, while Mohit appeared in all 14 of Chennai Super Kings' league games in 2014 without batting, but finally got to the crease in one of the playoffs.

Dirk Nannes (2009), Ishwar Pandey (2014) and Yuzvendra Chahal (2016) all played 13 matches in an IPL season without batting.

Surrey totalled 671 last week, with no one making a century. Was this a record? asked Brian Norton from England
The highest score in Surrey's 671 for 9 against Kent in Beckenham last week was Ollie Pope's 96; Ben Foakes and Jamie Overton were also out in the nineties. It was indeed the highest first-class total without an individual century, surpassing Namibia's 609 against Uganda in Windhoek in 2010-11, when the highest score was Ewald Steenkamp's 87.

Madhya Pradesh made 605 against Haryana in Rajnandgaon in 1998-99, with Jai Prakash Yadav scoring 90, while the previous County Championship record was also set by Surrey, in amassing 603 against Gloucestershire in Bristol in 2005; Azhar Mahmood hit 89 and Harbhajan Singh 84.

In the recent Surrey innings everyone reached double figures, with seven of them reaching 50. This was the 26th instance of seven half-centuries in a first-class innings - but there has been one case of eight, by the 1893 Australian tourists against Cambridge University Past & Present in Portsmouth. The Australians' total of 843 was the highest in first-class cricket at the time, being achieved against what Wisden called "a team so far from representative that over a dozen cricketers might be mentioned, any one of whom had better qualifications than those who took the field against the Colonials". Alec Bannerman, Billy Bruce and Hugh Trumble all scored centuries; Bannerman, a noted stonewaller, batted for more than six hours for 133, with Wisden observing that he showed "a steadiness of defence which might, perhaps, have been necessary had the bowling been that of first-class professionals instead of moderate amateurs".

Which bowler/fielder and bowler/wicketkeeper combinations have recorded most dismissals together in IPL? asked Aniket Chiniwalla from India
There's a tie at the top here between these two categories. There have been 20 instances of batters being caught by wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant off Kagiso Rabada for the Delhi team, while in the field there have also been 20 cases of caught Ravindra Jadeja bowled Dwayne Bravo for Chennai Super Kings. Bravo is the leading wicket-taker overall in the IPL, while Rabada is currently just one short of becoming the 19th bowler to take 100 wickets.

Shiva Jayaraman of ESPNcricinfo's stats team helped with some of the above answers.

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