Zaheer's record, and how Hadlee did himself out of one

Zaheer Khan scored 75 against Bangladesh - is this the highest score by a No. 11 in a Test? And how often has one side's last man made a higher score than any of the opposition batsmen? asked David Smeaton and Rangnath Deshpande

Firstly, Zaheer Khan's 75 at Dhaka is indeed the highest score by a No. 11 batsman in a Test, beating Richard Collinge's 68 not out for New Zealand against Pakistan at Auckland in 1972-73. And in answer to the second part of the question, it turns out to have been more than 102 years since a No. 11 outscored everyone on the other team - at Edgbaston in 1902 England's last man Wilfred Rhodes made 38 not out for England, but the highest individual score Australia could muster was 18, by Victor Trumper. There were four previous instances of this, all in the 19th century.

Has anyone ever taken nine wickets in a Test innings, and done himself out of a record by catching the other one? asked Gerald Blaby from Bristol

This has actually happened twice. At Johannesburg in 1956-57 Hugh Tayfield bowled South Africa to a narrow victory over England with 9 for 113, and caught the other man - Doug Insole, the top-scorer with 68 - off Trevor Goddard. And at Brisbane in 1985-86 New Zealand's Richard Hadlee took 9 for 52 against Australia - and caught the other batsman (Geoff Lawson) off the bowling of Vaughan Brown. It was the offspinner Brown's only Test wicket.

Has any batsman scored an unbeaten century in each innings of a Test match and still finished on the losing side? asked Mary Vincent from France

No-one has managed that exact feat, but seven men have scored hundreds in each innings of a Test but still ended up losing. Herbert Sutcliffe was the first to do it, for England against Australia at Melbourne in 1924-25. He was followed by the West Indian George Headley, against England at Lord's in 1939; Vijay Hazare, for India v Australia at Adelaide in 1947-48; the West Indian Clyde Walcott against Australia at Kingston in 1954-55; Sunil Gavaskar for India v Pakistan at Karachi in 1978-79; Zimbabwe's Andy Flower, against South Africa at Harare in 2001-02 (his second innings of 199 was the only not-out among the ones mentioned here), and Brian Lara for West Indies v Sri Lanka in Colombo, also in 2001-02.

Irfan Pathan took 10 wickets for India against Bangladesh at the age of 20. Is he the youngest to do this in a Test? asked Tudor Welikumbura

Rather surprisingly there have been six bowlers younger than Pathan was at Dhaka who have taken 10 wickets in a Test. One of them - Waqar Younis - did it twice. The youngest of all was Wasim Akram, who was just over three months short of his 19th birthday when he took 10 for 128 for Pakistan against New Zealand at Dunedin, in only his second Test, in 1984-85. The others who were older than Wasim but younger than Pathan were Laxman Sivaramakrishnan, Waqar, Narendra Hirwani, Srinivas Venkataraghavan and Alf Valentine. The oldest, little more than a month shy of his 50th birthday, was the Australian Bert Ironmonger, with 11 for 24 against South Africa at Melbourne in 1931-32.

Glenn McGrath recently scored his first half-century in his 102nd Test. Has anyone played more before managing their first fifty? asked Krishna Bhuwalka from Munich

The short answer is no: the next-best (or should that be next-worst) is by Muttiah Muralitharan, who scored his own maiden half-century in his 64th Test. The only other man to do so later than his 50th Test was Jason Gillespie, McGrath's partner-in-crime in that game at Brisbane - that was his 59th match. One person did play more without ever managing a half-century at all, though - Courtney Walsh won 132 Test caps for West Indies with a highest score of 30 not out. The latest anyone has ever scored a maiden Test hundred is their 56th match - by Zimbabwe's Heath Streak against West Indies at Harare in 2003-04. Shaun Pollock (51) also waited more than a half-century of matches before scoring his first Test ton.

I noticed that four Australians were run out in one innings in the fourth Test against West Indies in 1968-69. Is that a Test record, and what's the most in an entire Test? asked Joydeep Roy

Australia's panicky performance in a run-chase in that match, at Adelaide, did indeed equal the record of four run-outs in a Test innings, set by India against Pakistan at Peshawar in 1954-55. But the record for an entire match is seven, by Australia and Pakistan at Melbourne in 1972-73. The final run-out tally was Australia 3, Pakistan 4 - with Zaheer Abbas falling this way in both innings.

Steven Lynch is editor of Wisden Cricinfo. For some of these answers he was helped by Travis Basevi, the man who built Stats Guru and the Wisden Wizard. If you want to Ask Steven a question, contact him through our feedback form. The most interesting questions will be answered each week in this column. Unfortunately, we can't usually enter into correspondence about individual queries.

The Wisden Cricket Quiz Book, compiled by Steven Lynch, was published on November 1 by John Wisden & Co., priced £7.99. To save £2 by ordering a copy through Cricshop, click here.