How many teams have managed a "team hat-trick", as England did during one over in the Lord's Test? asked Robert Horton from England, among others
Stuart Broad's pivotal over on the third day of the see-saw Test between England and New Zealand at Lord's at the weekend included the wickets of Daryl Mitchell and Kyle Jamieson, interrupted by the run-out of Colin de Grandhomme. My first port of call for queries like these is the Melbourne statistician Charles Davis, whose monumental research into past Test matches has uncovered many previously unattainable statistics.
He advises me there have been only two previous individual overs in Tests that definitely contained three wickets in three balls including a run-out. The first was in an Ashes Test at Old Trafford in 1888, when England's George Lohmann took two wickets with successive balls after Harry Trott was run out; 92 years later in 1980, also at Old Trafford, the West Indian fast bowler Joel Garner took two wickets immediately after Alan Knott was run out. There's a third possibility: at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai in 1997-98, Sri Lanka's Kumar Dharmasena wrapped up the second innings with two wickets either side of a run-out with India's total stuck on 181. This was definitely in the same over, but the scorebook has disappeared so it's not certain whether the wickets fell to successive deliveries. If there's anyone out there with a scoresheet, or video evidence, please let me know!
There have also been eight further instances of a team hat-trick split over two different overs, involving two bowlers, including the only known instance of four wickets in four successive balls in a Test - by England against West Indies at Headingley in 1957, when Fred Trueman claimed a wicket with the last ball of an over, then Peter Loader took a hat-trick with the first three deliveries of the next. It should be said that, despite Charles' remarkable efforts, there are still a number of Tests for which ball-by-ball scores are not available.
Was Matt Parkinson the first man to make his Test debut as a concussion substitute? asked Kevin Ryan from England
The Lancashire legspinner Matt Parkinson was called up for his first Test after the unfortunate Jack Leach suffered concussion early on during the opening Test against New Zealand at Lord's. Unusually, Parkinson's debut was confirmed while he was tending a barbecue at his home around 200 miles away in Manchester.
The only other man to play his first Test as a concussion replacement (the preferred term, as in cricket substitutes cannot bat or bowl, whereas these replacements can) was the Zimbabwean opener Brian Mudzinganyama, who was called up against Sri Lanka in Harare in January 2020 after Kevin Kasuza (another debutant) was hit on the head while fielding.
More recently, South Africa's Khaya Zondo made his Test debut as a Covid replacement after Sarel Erwee tested positive during the match against Bangladesh in Gqeberha (formerly Port Elizabeth) in April.
The first Test against New Zealand this year started at Lord's on June 2. Last year, the same two teams met in the first Test at Lord's - again starting on June 2. Has this ever happened before in Tests? asked Philip Kelly from England
My first thought was this it would not have happened before - but that's always dangerous in cricket. And actually there was another instance, way back in the 19th century: Australia took on England in Sydney in a match that started on February 17, 1882, and the two teams met again at the SCG on February 17, 1883. Australia won both.
There have been three further instances of teams meeting each other in successive years in Tests that started on the same day, but not at the same ground. West Indies and Pakistan started Tests on March 26 in Port-of-Spain in 1958 and Lahore in 1959; Pakistan and Bangladesh began matches on March 12 in Dhaka in 1999 and Karachi in 2000; and South Africa met Australia in Tests starting on November 9 in Cape Town in 2011 and Brisbane in 2012.
A lot of batters were out for 1 in the first Test between England and New Zealand - was it a record? asked Rajiv Radhakrishnan from England
In all, there were five individual scores of 1 in the first Test between England and New Zealand at Lord's. However, five turned out to be a fair way down the list. There have been three Tests with eight scores of 1: South Africa vs England in Cape Town in 1898-99, India vs West Indies in Ahmedabad in 1983-84, and India vs South Africa in Mohali in 2015-16.
The first two of those matches included seven dismissals plus a not-out (the third included three not-outs). There have been five further Tests in which seven men were out for 1.
At Lord's, New Zealand's Will Young was out for a pair of 1s. This has now happened on 74 occasions in Tests - Jimmy Anderson has done it four times - but only six openers have completed the feat. Three of the others were also New Zealanders: Gordon Leggat (against Pakistan in Dacca in 1955-56), Bruce Murray (vs England in Christchurch in 1970-71) and Jeet Raval (vs Australia in Perth in 2019-20). It was also done by Moeen Ali for England (against Pakistan in Dubai in 2015-16) and India's Wasim Jaffer (vs West Indies in Kingston in 2006).
When did England's Test side last contain two players called Matthew, as it did at Lord's? asked Matthew Robertson from England
England's two debutants in the first Test at Lord's were Durham's Matthew Potts and Lancashire's Matt Parkinson, as mentioned above. It was the first time England had included two players with the first name Matthew since… March, when Yorkshire's Matthew Fisher made his debut against West Indies in Bridgetown and lined up alongside Jack Leach, whose first name is Matthew.
But that's cheating a bit: the only time England have fielded two players generally known as Matthew (or Matt) in the same side was in four matches during 2007, when Matthew Hoggard appeared with Matt Prior (they both had the same second name too: James). England's only previous Matthew was Glamorgan's Matthew Maynard, who won four caps between 1988 and 1993-94.
Shiva Jayaraman of ESPNcricinfo's stats team helped with some of the above answers.
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