Stuart Broad achieved the double of 1000 runs and 100 wickets against Australia during the Ashes. How many people have done this double against another country in Tests? asked Laura Tennison from England
Stuart Broad completed this particular double by collecting his 1000th run against Australia during the fourth Ashes Test at Old Trafford. In the final Test at The Oval, Broad claimed his 150th wicket against Australia when he dismissed Usman Khawaja in the first innings. His last victim in the previous game had put him clear of Ian Botham (148) as England's leading wicket-taker in Tests against Australia; Shane Warne (195), Dennis Lillee (167) and Glenn McGrath (157) took more for Australia against England.
Broad joined a very select club in completing the 1000-run/100-wicket double against a particular country in Tests. Only five others have managed it, four of them in the Ashes: Wilfred Rhodes and Ian Botham for England, George Giffen and Monty Noble for Australia. The only other entry on this list comes from Garry Sobers West Indies, who scored 3214 runs and took 102 wickets in Tests against England.
The draw in Manchester was Ben Stokes' first as captain, in his 18th match. Has anyone captained in more Tests before a draw? asked Rajiv Radhakrishnan from England
That soggy draw in the fourth Ashes Test, at Old Trafford, came after Ben Stokes had won 12 and lost five of his previous 17 Tests as captain.
Waqar Younis captained Pakistan in 17 Tests, and never presided over a draw: ten of them were won and seven lost. But Shakib Al Hasan has not yet had a draw in 19 Tests in charge of Bangladesh - so far he has experienced four wins and 15 defeats.
Dean Elgar of South Africa won nine and lost seven of his first 16 Tests in charge before drawing the 17th (in Sydney in January 2023), while Zimbabwe's Brendan Taylor captained in 16 Tests, losing 13 and winning three.
I heard that Joe Root passed 6000 runs in Tests in England during the Ashes. Who else has done this in England, and who has the most in any country? asked Derek Mitchell from England
Joe Root completed 6000 runs in Tests in England during his first innings of the final Test at The Oval; by the end of the Ashes he had scored 6092 Test runs in England. The only man with more is Alastair Cook, who collected 6568 home runs.
The most in any one country is 7578, by Ricky Ponting in Australia; Sachin Tendulkar made 7216 in India, Mahela Jayawardene 7176 in Sri Lanka, and Jacques Kallis 7035 in South Africa. Brian Lara holds the record for Tests in West Indies with 6217, Javed Miandad scored 4481 in Pakistan, Kane Williamson 4267 in New Zealand, Mushfiqur Rahim 3363 in Bangladesh, and Andy Flower 2487 in Zimbabwe. Root, Williamson and Mushfiqur are likely to add to their tallies. Here's the list of players who have scored 4000 Test runs in one country (West Indies counted as one country for these purposes).
Two Surrey batters were out for 99 in an innings during their recent County Championship match against Somerset. How often has this happened in first-class cricket? asked Daniel George from Wales, among others
The two unfortunate Surrey players dismissed for 99 in their Championship match against Somerset in Taunton last week were the New Zealander Tom Latham and England's Will Jacks. This was the seventh such instance, and I was rather surprised to discover that the first was as recent as 1972-73, when Majid Khan and Mushtaq Mohammad both fell for 99 for Pakistan against England in Karachi. This remains the only case in a Test match; Dennis Amiss was also out for 99 later in that game.
Twin 99s had therefore never happened in more than 150 years of first-class cricket - but there was a repeat a few months later in 1973. Playing for Middlesex against Yorkshire at Lord's, Mike Smith and Clive Radley both fell for 99. That was the only other case in England before the recent one, but there have been four others worldwide: by Azhar Khan and Parvez Mir for Pakistan Universities against Punjab B in Lahore in 1974-75 (Parvez finished with 99 not out); Manu Nayyar and Rajiv Vinayak for Delhi vs Jammu & Kashmir in Delhi in 1989-90; Kavaljit Singh and Shammy Salaria for Jammu & Kashmir vs Maharashtra in Pune in 2002-03; and Tishan Maraj and Imran Jan for Trinidad & Tobago in Crab Hill in Barbados in 2004-05.
In their recent Championship match against Middlesex, all four Warwickshire bowlers conceded 49 runs in the first innings. Has something like this ever happened before? asked Sandesh Acharekar from India, and several others
The remarkable scorecard you're talking about occurred in the County Championship match at Edgbaston last week: in Middlesex's first innings against Warwickshire, Oliver Hannon-Dalby, Mir Hamza and Ed Barnard all took 3 for 49, while Henry Brookes finished with 1 for 49.
The Association of Cricket Statisticians has unearthed 25 other cases of four bowlers conceding the same number of runs in a first-class innings, three of them in women's cricket. In only one of those were just four bowlers used, as was the case at Edgbaston: in Karachi Blues' second innings of 0 for 0 in a Quaid-e-Azam Trophy match in Gujranwala in 2000-01, four of the home side's bowlers sent down a maiden over apiece.
The 49 runs conceded by the Warwickshire quartet is the highest in all these instances, beating four 43s for North West against Free State in a domestic match in South Africa in Potchefstroom in 2015-16. One of the fours happened in a Test: at The Oval in 1959, Fred Trueman, Brian Statham, Ted Dexter and Ken Barrington all conceded 24 runs during India's first innings of 140.
However, there is one case of five bowlers conceding the same number of runs in a first-class innings: in a Ranji Trophy match in Nagpur in 1999-2000, five Vidarbha bowlers conceded six runs apiece during Railways' brief second innings of 76 for 3.
Shiva Jayaraman of ESPNcricinfo's stats team helped with some of the above answers.
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