Two double-centuries, and 11 names on a scorecard

I noticed that Bill Lawry and Bobby Simpson both scored double-centuries in the same Test against West Indies in 1964-65, which is still the biggest opening partnership for Australia. Is this the only instance of both openers passing 200 in a Test innings? asked Keith d'Souza

That match at Bridgetown, when Lawry scored 210 and Simpson made 201, is indeed the only occasion that both openers have scored a double-century in a Test (and Bob Cowper added 102 from No. 3 in that game). The nearest approach was in June 2000, when Marvan Atapattu made 207 and Sanath Jayasuriya 188 for Sri Lanka against Pakistan at Kandy. There have been nine other occasions when both openers passed 150 in the same innings.

Have all 11 players of the bowling team ever got a mention on the same scorecard for an innings? asked Amitabh Nigam from Lucknow

This is quite a surprising one. Ten of the 11 players have featured on the same scorecard on 50 occasions in Test history - but only once have all 11 got a mention. It came in West Indies' second innings at Kingston in 2000-01, when six South African bowlers took wickets - Paul Adams, Allan Donald, Jacques Kallis, Justin Kemp, Lance Klusener and Shaun Pollock - and the other five players (Mark Boucher, Daryll Cullinan, Herschelle Gibbs, Gary Kirsten and Neil McKenzie) all took at least one catch.

Before I emigrated in 1952 I remember there was a lot of fuss made about batsmen scoring 1000 runs in May at the start of the English season. How many times has this actually been achieved? asked Paul Prechner from Toronto, Canada

A lot of fuss is still made, although with the amount of one-day cricket these days it's almost impossible for anyone to play enough first-class innings to reach 1000 before the end of May. Having said that, Kent's Robert Key came quite close this season - he scored 906 runs by May 28, but didn't have another innings before June. The feat of scoring 1000 first-class runs before the end of May in England has only been achieved twice since the Second World War - by Glenn Turner, of the touring New Zealanders, in 1973, and by Graeme Hick for Worcestershire in 1988. Previously it was done by WG Grace (1895), Surrey's Tom Hayward (1900), Wally Hammond (1927), Charlie Hallows of Lancashire (1928), Bill Edrich (1938) and, almost inevitably, by Don Bradman - twice, in 1930 and 1938. Of those, only Grace, Hammond and Hallows actually scored their runs in May itself - the others needed a few innings in April too. Edrich's feat was unusual, in that all his 1010 runs were scored at Lord's.

A recent "All Today's Yesterdays" talked about Ken Suttle, who played 423 consecutive County Championship matches for Sussex, scored 30,225 runs, but never played a Test for England. Has anyone made more runs without winning a Test cap? asked Imran Khalid from Frankfurt, Germany

Rather surprisingly, Ken Suttle (who toured West Indies in 1953-54 without playing a Test cap) in only equal third on that list. At the top is Alan Jones, the Glamorgan opener, who made 36,049 runs in first-class cricket without ever playing an official Test (he did, however, play once for England against the Rest of the World in 1970, in a match retrospectively stripped of Test status). John Langridge, like Suttle a Sussex man, made 34,380 runs without winning an England cap, while Les Berry - a long-serving Leicestershire batsman - also made 30,225 runs without winning an England cap.

I noticed that 16 different bowlers were used in the final one-dayer between Sri Lanka and South Africa in Colombo. Is this approaching record territory? asked Richard de Costobadie from London

Sixteen bowlers in the match equalled the record for a one-day international. It's actually happened nine times now, and the first one was the match between New Zealand (nine bowlers) and Sri Lanka (seven) at Auckland in 1982-83.

Has anyone batted in every position in a one-day international? asked Derek Johnson from Camberley

The only man to have opened and also batted in every position from No. 3 to 11 in the order in a one-day international is Abdul Razzaq, the Pakistan allrounder. He hasn't yet faced the first ball of an innings, so hasn't been No. 1 on the scorecard. Three other players - Lance Klusener, Shoaib Malik and Hashan Tillakaratne - have batted in ten different positions including both No. 1 and 2 in the order. Unlike Razzaq, none of them has ever batted at No. 11 in an ODI.