Stuart Broad hit a six off the last ball he faced in Tests, and then took a wicket with his final ball too. Has anyone else done this? asked Matthew Edwards from Australia, and many others
I think I had more messages in the last week about Stuart Broad's feats in the last Ashes Test at The Oval than any other recent occurrence! And the short answer is that Broad is indeed the first to achieve both these feats in his final Test.
Broad hit a six from the final ball he received, from Mitchell Starc, and was then left not out when James Anderson was dismissed in the next over to end England's second innings. Two other men are known to have hit the last ball they received in Tests for six: the West Indian fast bowler Wayne Daniel, against Australia in Port-of-Spain in 1983-84, and the Australian allrounder Glenn Maxwell, against Bangladesh in Chattogram in 2017-18. Although it currently seems unlikely, it's possible that Maxwell could yet play another Test.
According to the Melbourne statistician Charles Davis, there's one other possible addition to the list: the West Indian legspinner Tommy Scott hit a six during the last over he faced in Tests, against Australia in Melbourne in 1930-31 - but full ball-by-ball details have not survived, so we're not quite sure when he hit it.
Neither Daniel nor Maxwell (or Scott) also took a wicket with their final delivery in a Test, as Broad did. He joined a surprisingly long list - around 120 men - who have done this. Many of the players concerned are not terribly memorable, but the better-known names include Muthiah Muralidaran, Glenn McGrath, Richard Hadlee, Hugh Trumble, Charles "The Terror" Turner, Jim Laker, Alan Davidson, Garry Sobers, Derek Underwood, Andy Caddick, Sarfraz Nawaz and Dennis Lillee. Perhaps the strangest entry on the list is the South African wicketkeeper Mark Boucher, who took his only Test wicket - the West Indian Dwayne Bravo in Antigua in 2004-05 - in his 84th match, and never bowled again in 63 further Tests.
In his long Test career, Stuart Broad took an eight-wicket haul and also had an innings of more than 150. How many people have managed this double? asked Derek Martin from England
The retiring Stuart Broad hit 169 against Pakistan at Lord's in 2010, and five years later took 8 for 15 in Australia's astonishing first-morning collapse at Trent Bridge.
Broad is one of only seven men to do this particular double in a Test career. Two of them actually made double-centuries: Vinoo Mankad of India (who passed 200 twice, and also took two eight-fors) and England's Ian Botham (two lots of eight). Two of them took nine wickets in an innings: Richard Hadlee of New Zealand, and India's Kapil Dev, who had two hauls of eight wickets and one of nine.
The other two to complete the "Broad double" were England's Wilfred Rhodes and the South African Lance Klusener, who took 8 for 64 on his debut, against India in Kolkata in 1996-97.
A further 12 men have scored at least one century and taken eight wickets in an innings during their Test career: Botham uniquely did it in the same match, with 108 and 8 for 34 against Pakistan at Lord's in 1978. For the full list, click here.
Prabath Jayasuriya has taken a wicket in every Test innings in which he has bowled. Is there a longer streak of taking wickets in innings from debut? And what's the most consecutive innings a bowler has taken at least one wicket? asked Michael Baker from England
The Sri Lankan slow left-armer Prabath Jayasuriya has so far bowled in 16 Test innings, and taken at least one wicket each time (he has 59 in all at the moment). The record in this regard is held by the New Zealand paceman Shane Bond, who bowled in 32 innings in all from his debut in November 2001, and never failed to take a wicket.
The West Indian fast bowler Andy Roberts and the 1930s England legspinner Walter Robins both took at least one wicket in the first 23 innings in which they bowled.
The record for a mid-career streak is held by Muthiah Muralidaran, who took at least one wicket (and usually many more!) in 52 successive Test innings from April 2006. Bishan Bedi struck in 42 successive innings, Dennis Lillee and Waqar Younis in 41, and Andrew Flintoff in 37.
During the Ashes series I heard Glenn McGrath say he was never dismissed in a Test at Lord's, and scored a few runs there as well. What's the most a batter has made on one ground without ever being dismissed? asked Tim Marshall from England
Glenn McGrath played three Tests at Lord's, and he's correct to say that he was never dismissed there. After making 0 not out in Australia's eight-wicket victory in 2001, he scored 10 and 20, both undefeated, and had match figures of 9 for 82 in a 239-run win in 2005. (He didn't bat in 1997, but did take 8 for 38!)
Unsurprisingly, McGrath is a fair way down the list of run-scorers who were never dismissed at a particular ground. On top is the New Zealander Stephen Fleming, who made 343 runs at the P Sara Stadium in Colombo, in the form of innings of 274 and 69, both not out, against Sri Lanka in April 2003.
Next come England's Wally Hammond, whose one Test innings at Eden Park in Auckland brought him 336 not out in 1932-33, and the more recent Indian batter Karun Nair, who made an unbeaten 303 in his only innings at the Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai, in 2016-17. For the list, click here.
The West Indian fast bowler Colin Croft had five Test innings at Port-of-Spain, scoring 31 runs while never being dismissed, while the Pakistan slow left-armer Zulfiqar Babar went in to bat six times in Sharjah and was never out, collecting a grand total of 22 runs in the process.
Mukesh Kumar made his debut for India in all three formats in the space of a fortnight. Is this a record? asked Suresh Joshi from India
The 29-year-old Indian seamer Mukesh Sharma made his Test debut against West Indies in Port-of-Spain on July 20, played his first ODI in Bridgetown on July 27, and made his T20I bow in Tarouba (Trinidad) on August 3.
Mukesh thus completed the full set of three international formats in 14 days - but he lies only second on this particular list. The New Zealander Peter Ingram actually completed his nap hand in just 12 days, all against Bangladesh early in 2010: T20I debut in Hamilton on February 3, first ODI in Napier on Feb 5, and a first Test cap in Hamilton on Feb 15.
Ingram was 31 at the time, and the New Zealand historian Francis Payne recalled: "The ironic thing was that it took him almost ten years at provincial level before he represented New Zealand at all. He reinvented himself from a modest-scoring stonewaller to an aggressive and heavy-scoring batsman."
Aizaz Cheema (Pakistan) and Dion Myers (Zimbabwe) both took 15 days to complete a full set of international formats, Kyle Abbott (South Africa) 16, and Doug Bracewell (New Zealand) 17. The England record is held by Joe Root, at a relatively sedate 29 days.
Shiva Jayaraman of ESPNcricinfo's stats team helped with some of the above answers.
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