Langer's first, and another record for Lara

Is Justin Langer the first player to outscore the entire opposing team in both innings of a Test match? asked Jon Murphy from Australia

The short answer is yes, he is: in the first Test against Pakistan at Perth recently Langer scored 191 in the first innings, and Pakistan made 179. And in the second innings Langer made 97 and Pakistan only 72. It's the first time a batsman has outscored the opposition in each innings of a match. There are five other instances of a batsman scoring more runs overall than the opposition managed in both innings. The little Surrey opener Bobby Abel was the first to do it: for England at Cape Town in 1888-89, Abel's 120 was more than South Africa (47 and 43) managed all told. Len Hutton repeated the dose nearly 50 years later. At The Oval in 1938, Hutton scored 364, and Australia made only 201 and 123. Don Bradman, who was injured in that 1938 match and couldn't bat, did it at Brisbane in 1947-48, scoring 185 to India's 58 and 98 in their first Test against Australia. Inzamam-ul-Haq (329) beat New Zealand (73 and 246) off his own bat at Lahore in 2001-02, and Matthew Hayden (119) did likewise to Pakistan (59 and 53) at Sharjah in 2002-03.

I know that Viv Richards holds the record for the most Test runs in a calendar year, but who has scored the most runs - and taken the most wickets - in any 12-month period? asked Campbell Johnson from Stirling

This is a difficult one, since it's hard to take into account close-of-play scores - especially in the bowling, where the overnight analysis is often not recorded. But it looks as if the most Test runs in any 12-month period is 1949, by Brian Lara, between April 19, 2003 and April 14, 2004. That just beat Sunil Gavaskar's 1947 between Nov 14, 1978 and Nov 7, 1979. Next comes Viv Richards, with 1811 between late 1975 and August 1976, and then Sachin Tendulkar, with 1792 in the year from Nov 3, 2001. Top in the bowling - and the only man to take more than 100 wickets in a 12-month period - is Muttiah Muralitharan, with 113 between mid-August 2001 and the end of July 2002. Next is Imran Khan, with 88 in 1982-83.

In the second Test between Bangladesh and India, Mohammad Ashraful passed 1000 Test runs during his sensational century. He is still only 20 - is he the youngest to pass 1000 Test runs? asked Sanjay Naik from California

He's actually the second-youngest. Sachin Tendulkar was about nine months younger when he completed his first 1000 runs in Tests, in 1992-93. But Mohammad Ashraful has edged some great names one place down the list: Kapil Dev is now third, ahead of Javed Miandad, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Graeme Pollock, who were all a little over 21 when they reached four figures. Tendulkar also passed 2000 before he was 21. Ashraful remains the youngest person to score a Test century, as this list shows - he was a few days short of his 17th birthday when he made 114 against Sri Lanka in Colombo in 2001-02. Out of interest, the oldest man to complete 1000 runs in Tests was England's George Gunn, who was almost 51 when he did so, in West Indies in 1929-30.

In the second Test against India, Bangladesh's top score in the second innings was made by their No. 11. How often has that happened in Tests? asked Ajai Banerji

That instance by Talha Jubair at Chittagong was the sixth time it has happened in Tests, but the first for more than 20 years. The first No. 11 to top-score was Australia's Fred Spofforth, with 50 against England at Sydney in 1884-85. Tom McKibbin of Australia repeated the feat against England at The Oval in 1896, when his 16 was the only double-figure score in a miserable second innings of 44 (Australia had needed only 111 to win). South Africa's Bert Vogler was the next to do it, with 62 not out against England at Cape Town in 1905-06. It was 69 years before it happened again, when Asif Masood top-scored from No. 11 for Pakistan against West Indies at Lahore in 1974-75. And the most recent instance before Talha Jubair's was in 1983-84, when Jayantha Amerasinghe - who was making his Test debut for Sri Lanka - managed it against New Zealand at Kandy.

While looking up something about the new South African player J-P Duminy, I noticed there was another player of the same name. Are they connected? asked Maurice Pendleton from Cape Town

I don't think there's any family connection between the two - one was of Dutch stock, while the current player's name suggests he may have French ancestry. The older one - Jacobus Petrus Duminy - played three Tests against England in 1927-28 and 1929, the last one coming when he was called up from a European holiday to play at Headingley. He later became a university professor, and died in Cape Town in 1980. The current player - Jean-Paul Duminy - was born in 1984, and played in all five ODIs on South Africa's recent series in Sri Lanka.

Has there ever been a Test match where both wicketkeepers have stumped each other? asked Michael Wagener from Auckland

There hasn't yet been any instance of the two rival wicketkeepers stumping each other in the same Test. There have been two occasions when one keeper was stumped in both innings - it happened to Ivan Barrow of West Indies against Australia at Brisbane in 1930-31. He was stumped by Bert Oldfield off the bowling of Clarrie Grimmett both times. It happened again at Madras in 1987-88, when West Indies' Jeff Dujon was stumped by Kiran More off Narendra Hirwani in both innings (More was on his way to a Test-record number of stumpings in an innings and a match). Dujon did at least catch More in one of India's innings.