The Happy Families Test, and most IPL runs without a ton

Rest of India scored 482 in the Irani Trophy match against Mumbai. Was this the highest fourth-innings total to win a first-class match? asked Palash Chopra from India
Rest of India amassed 482 for 6 in the fourth innings to overcome Mumbai in the Irani Trophy match at the Brabourne Stadium in March. There have been nine higher fourth-innings totals to win a first-class match, two of them in India, including the biggest of all, West Zone's 541 for 7 against South Zone in the Duleep Trophy final in Hyderabad in 2009-10 - Yusuf Pathan hammered 210, with ten sixes. Also in the Duleep Trophy, in Gurgaon in 2003-04, South Zone scored 503 for 4 to defeat England A. In this year's Irani match Mumbai scored 603 in their first innings, but lost: only five higher totals have ever been made by defeated sides, the biggest being Essex's 642 against Glamorgan in Chelmsford in 2004. The Indian record survived, just: Maharashtra lost (by 354 runs!) despite scoring 604 against Bombay in their Ranji Trophy semi-final in Poona in 1948-49.

MS Dhoni has scored 3000 runs in the IPL, but never a hundred. Is this a record? asked Vasant Wangnekar from India
As I write, MS Dhoni has scored 3073 runs in the IPL, putting him in seventh place overall - Suresh Raina leads the way with 3873. Dhoni's highest score so far is 70 not out (for Chennai Super Kings in Bangalore in May 2011), but there are two others above him who have not yet cracked the three-figure mark in IPL games: Gautam Gambhir has made 3370 runs with a highest of 93, while Robin Uthappa has 3130, with a best of 83 not out. Virat Kohli (in third place with 3504 runs) didn't have a hundred to his name until last Sunday, when he made 100 not out for Royal Challengers Bangalore against Gujarat Lions in Rajkot.

Lisa Sthalekar is one of the commentators in the IPL. Is she the only woman to do the double of 1000 runs and 100 wickets in one-day internationals? asked Jamie Stewart from Canada
Lisa Sthalekar, who was born in India but played for Australia, collected 2728 runs and 146 wickets in 125 one-day internationals between 2001 and 2013. She was the first woman to achieve this particular double, but four others have completed it more recently. England's Jenny Gunn currently has 1460 runs and 120 wickets in ODIs, while Ellyse Perry from Australia boasts 1487 runs and 102 wickets. Shashikala Siriwardene (Sri Lanka) has 1613 runs and 106 wickets, but pride of place arguably goes to the West Indian captain Stafanie Taylor - she has 108 wickets to go with no fewer than 3468 runs from her 90 matches. An offspinner, Taylor also has 2208 runs and 67 wickets in T20 internationals.

There were five run-outs in the 1975 World Cup final - is this the record for an ODI innings? And what's the record in Tests? asked Samvadi Parthasarathi from India
Five Australians were run out in that memorable first World Cup final at Lord's in 1975, most of them, it seemed, by Viv Richards (he was responsible for three, actually). Five remains the record, although it has been equalled nine times since, most recently by South Africa's batsmen against New Zealand in Kimberley in January 2013. The most in a Test innings is four, which has happened twice - by India against Pakistan in Peshawar in 1954-55, and by Australia as they pushed for victory in what ended up as a high-scoring draw against West Indies in Adelaide in 1968-69.

I seem to remember a Test in which one side had three or even four sets of brothers playing - possibly New Zealand? asked Graham Crouch from Australia
New Zealand have had several sets of brothers in Tests down the years - eight pairs in all, as this list shows, all since the 1970s. But the record for a single Test match was actually set against New Zealand: in Harare in September 1997, Zimbabwe fielded Andy and Grant Flower, Gavin and John Rennie, and Bryan and Paul Strang. As Wisden observed, "This was almost the Happy Families Test. For the first time in Test cricket, three sets of brothers played in the same team, while the twelfth man was Andy Whittall, cousin of Guy." Four Mohammad brothers played for Pakistan, but never in the same Test. Three of them appeared against New Zealand in Karachi in 1969-70 - it was Hanif Mohammad's last Test, and Sadiq Mohammad's first.

Further to last week's question about players who captained in their first one-day international, how many times has it happened in Tests? asked Mark Smith from England
In all there have been 32 players who captained on their Test debut, including nine in their country's inaugural Test (the exception is Pakistan's first captain Abdul Hafeez Kardar, who had previously played for India). A lot of the gentlemen concerned were English amateurs, from the days when full-strength teams were only selected for tours of Australia. Leaving aside the initial captains of Sri Lanka (Bandula Warnapura in 1981-82), Zimbabwe (Dave Houghton in 1992-93) and Bangladesh (Naimur Rahman in 2000-01), there have been only four instances of this since the Second World War, three of them for England: George Mann captained on his Test debut in South Africa in 1948-49, Nigel Howard in India in 1951-52, and Tony Lewis in India in 1972-73. The only other instance was by New Zealand's Lee Germon, who took charge for his Test debut, against India in Bangalore in 1995-96.

To complete the set by turning to T20Is, a total of 28 men have captained on debut, many of them in their side's inaugural match. The most notable name on this list is George Bailey, who captained Australia on his international debut - the first man to do so since the inaugural Test of 1876-77 - against India in Sydney in February 2012.