Which bowler has taken the most wickets in the fourth innings of Tests? Is it Jimmy Anderson? asked David Wilkinson from England
Jimmy Anderson is in the top ten here with 91 fourth-innings wickets, one more than his old sparring partner Stuart Broad. But leading the way, with 138 fourth-innings victims, is Shane Warne.
There is some danger of a change at the top, however: in second place at the moment with 119 is another prolific Australian spinner, Nathan Lyon. Three others took more than 100 fourth-innings wickets: Rangana Herath (115), Muthiah Muralidaran (106) and Glenn McGrath (103). R Ashwin currently has 99, so should join them soon.
If you restrict the qualification to fourth-innings wickets in Test victories, Warne still leads the way with 106, ahead of Herath (98), Lyon (94), Ashwin (86) and McGrath (84).
Goa's innings in the Ranji Trophy the other day included two triple-centuries. Has this happened before in a first-class match? asked Ashwini K Patel from India
In something of mismatch in last week's Ranji Trophy Plate group, Goa ran up 727 for 2 declared in Porvorim, either side of bowling Arunachal Pradesh out for 84 and 92. Kashyap Bakle (300 not out) and Snehal Kauthankar (314 not out) both scored their maiden triple-centuries, and shared an unbeaten third-wicket partnership of 606, which has been beaten in all first-class cricket only by the 624 of Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene for Sri Lanka against South Africa in Colombo in July 2006.
There has been only one other innings that contained two triple-centuries - also in the Ranji Trophy, although oddly enough it was against Goa, who did it this time. Back in January 1989, in Panaji, Tamil Nadu's 912 for 6 declared included 313 from WV Raman and 302 not out from Arjan Kripal Singh.
Has a T20I innings ever contained two centuries, before last week? asked Taral Khasiya via Twitter/X
The match last week was in Johannesburg, where Sanju Samson hit 109 not out and Tilak Varma 120 not out as India piled up 283 for 1 against South Africa. They shared an unbroken stand of 210, and hit 19 sixes between them.
There have been two other T20I innings that contained two individual centuries. One of them happened earlier this year, in Mong Kok (Hong Kong) in February, when Lachlan Yamamoto-Lake scored 134 not out and Kendal Kadowaki-Fleming 109 not out for Japan against China. But the first such instance in a men's T20I took place in 2022, when Sabawoon Davizi and Dylan Steyn scored hundreds for Czech Republic against Bulgaria in Malta.*
It's a rare achievement in all men's T20 cricket: there have been only six other instances in senior matches, three of them in the IPL.
There have been five cases in women's T20Is, including two in three days by Argentina against Chile in October 2023.
I noticed that Lee Germon top-scored in both innings of his debut Test, and was also the captain. Has anyone else done this? asked Prasenjit Chatterjee from India
The New Zealand wicketkeeper Lee Germon achieved this unusual feat on his Test debut, with 48 and 41 against India in Bengaluru in October 1995. He's actually the only one to top-score in both innings of his debut while also being captain, which is a pretty rare achievement in itself.
Eighteen other players have top-scored in both innings of their Test debut, but were not captain. The most recent instance was by Alick Athanaze, for West Indies against India in Roseau (Dominica) in July 2023, and before that Shreyas Iyer did it for India vs New Zealand in Kanpur in November 2021 .
The famed 1948 Australian team scored 774 against Gloucestershire, and there were five hundred partnerships in the innings. Was this a record? asked Tony Mountford from England
The 1948 Australian "Invincibles", captained by Don Bradman, went through that long tour without being defeated. In the match against Gloucestershire in Bristol, even though Bradman himself didn't play, the Aussies' 774 for 7 declared included successive partnerships of 102, 66, 136, 162, 63, 140 and 105. Opener Arthur Morris made 290, and Sam Loxton 159 not out from No. 6.
At the time, that was the fourth instance of five hundred partnerships in a first-class innings (the Australians had also done it in England in 1938, against Oxford University), and there have been two more cases since: by Sialkot (666 for 7) against Hyderabad in Sialkot in November 2007, and Sri Lanka A (749 for 5 declared) vs South Africa A in Potchefstroom in 2008.
But there's a runaway leader in this category. There has never been a first-class innings with six hundred partnerships, but there has been one with seven: when Holkar ran up 912 for 8 declared against Mysore in the Ranji Trophy semi-final in Indore in March 1946, they had successive stands of 184, 4, 111, 172, 110, 125, 106 and 100.
And there's an update to last week's question about Mominul Haque being out twice in the same session of a Test, from Charles Davis in Australia
"On the subject of two dismissals in a short interval, if we widen the search to include any score, the fastest appears to be by Percy Sherwell for South Africa against Australia in Sydney in March 1911. Sherwell was the last man out in the first innings, and when the follow-on was enforced he kept the pads on and opened, only to be first out for 14 in the fourth over. There were 11 minutes' playing time and 27 minutes' elapsed time between the two dismissals."
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