Kallis's batting records, and a man with measles

Jacques Kallis has scored 7420 runs in 157 Test innings at an average of 57, without a double-century. Has anyone scored more than him without reaching 200? asked Jeff S from New Zealand

As this list shows, five men have currently scored more Test runs than Jacques Kallis without managing a double-century: Alec Stewart (8463 runs, highest score 190), Mark Waugh (8029, 153 not out), Mike Atherton (7728, 185 not out), Colin Cowdrey (7624, 182), and Desmond Haynes (7487, 184). Turning to his remarkable average, this list shows that only Herbert Sutcliffe of England, who averaged 60.73 with a highest score of 194, has finished with a higher average than Kallis's 57.07 without scoring a double-century.

I was floored by this question in a recent quiz - who scored 99 not out at Lord's while suffering from measles? It doesn't seem to be in a Test, so can you help? asked Anandji Shukla from Ahmedabad

No, it wasn't in a Test - it happened in the 1912 Varsity Match, when Oxford University's Gerald Crutchley made an undefeated 99 before running out of partners. When he got back to the pavilion he was found to be suffering from a severe case of the measles, and played no further part in the match. His absence in the second innings was probably quite important - Cambridge ended up winning by just three wickets. Crutchley's Wisden obituary reveals another interesting fact about him: "He held another distinction, for he was the last man to play cricket during the Canterbury Week and to act at night for the Old Stagers."

I wanted to ask which wicketkeeper has the most stumpings in Tests, and in ODIs? asked Muzammil from Germany

In Tests the leading stumper is the elegant old Australian wicketkeeper Bert Oldfield, who claimed 52 stumpings, many of them off the wily legspinner Clarrie Grimmett, to go with only 78 catches. England's Godfrey Evans comes next with 46. Click here for a list of the leading wicketkeepers in Tests. In one-day internationals the leader is Romesh Kaluwitharana of Sri Lanka, with 75, just ahead of Pakistan's Moin Khan, who has 73. For a full ODI list, click here.

I have this strange recollection from my past of an England game when a replacement wicketkeeper was plucked from the crowd. I'm pretty sure it was Bob Taylor, but I was young at the time and could be totally wrong! Am I dreaming? asked Ben Levy

The match you're talking about was the first Test against New Zealand at Lord's in 1986. Bruce French was the selected wicketkeeper, but he was hit on the head by Richard Hadlee while batting, and was unable to field after retiring hurt. At first Bill Athey, who was playing in the match, took over the pads for a couple of overs, then - with the generous agreement of the New Zealand captain, Jeremy Coney - England hooked their former keeper Bob Taylor out of a hospitality tent and persuaded him to pad up. He was 45 and had been retired for a couple of years then, but he kept immaculately for the rest of the second day, before giving way (again with Coney's approval) to a more conventional substitute - Bobby Parks of Hampshire - next morning. French returned to keep wicket for the last ball of the first innings and the whole of the second, making four keepers in all for England in that match. Such a procession is thought to be unique in Test cricket.

What was the most expensive dropped catch? asked Kenny Jarvis

That unhappy record belongs to Chris Scott, the former Durham wicketkeeper who now coaches Cambridge University. Against Warwickshire at Edgbaston in 1994 he dropped Brian Lara, who had 18 at the time, off the bowling of the England one-cap wonder Simon Brown. Lara, who had earlier been bowled by an Andy Cummins no-ball, was in top form at the time, so Scott solemnly observed: "I suppose he'll get a hundred now." He did - it was his seventh in eight first-class innings, another record - and went on to make 501 not out, the highest innings in first-class history. Poor Scott's fumble cost 483 runs.

Did Sir Arthur Conan Doyle play first-class cricket? asked Upul Liyanapathiranage from Sri Lanka

Yes, Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes appeared in ten first-class matches between 1900 and 1907, all of them for MCC and eight of them at Lord's. He scored 231 runs at 19.25, not too bad an average for the time, especially considering he was over 40 when he made his debut, but he is best remembered for his one and only wicket. It came in his first match, against London County at Crystal Palace in 1900, and his victim was the opposing captain, the legendary WG Grace, for 110.