Ganga's unusual misfortune, and a case of 99itis

In the fourth Test against England, Daren Ganga was out to the first ball of the match. Has this ever happened to a Test captain before? asked Uwaisul Karnain from Sri Lanka

Poor old Daren Ganga was the 26th player to be dismissed by the first ball of a Test (for a full list, click here), but he was only the third captain. The first one was Warren Bardsley of Australia, at Headingley in 1926: like Ganga, Bardsley was standing in for the tour captain (Herbie Collins), who was unfit. The only other instance came at Galle in 1999-2000, when Sanath Jayasuriya of Sri Lanka fell to the first ball of the match, bowled by Australia's Glenn McGrath. India's Sunil Gavaskar fell to the first ball of a Test on three separate occasions (an unwanted record he shares with Hannan Sarkar of Bangladesh), but he wasn't captain in any of those games.

In the 1993 Lord's Test both Mark Waugh and Mike Atherton were out for 99. Is this the only instance of two batsmen of opposite teams being dismissed for 99 in the same match? asked Vikram Ravi Menezes from India

That instance at Lord's in 1993 was actually the fourth time two batsmen had made 99 in the same Test. It also happened at Christchurch in 1991-92, when both Dipak Patel (run out) and John Wright (stumped) scored 99 for New Zealand against England. It also happened at Perth in 1979-80, although one of the batsmen that time - England's Geoff Boycott - was stranded on 99 not out (Kim Hughes had earlier been out for 99 for Australia). But the biggest match for near-misses was at Karachi in 1972-73, when Majid Khan and Mushtaq Mohammad of Pakistan and England's Dennis Amiss were all out for 99 in the same game.

What is the highest score in the fourth innings of a Test in a losing cause, and in a draw? asked Alan White

The highest fourth-innings total in a Test by a team which ended up losing is 451, by New Zealand against England at Christchurch in 2001-02, in the match where Nathan Astle hammered the fastest Test double-century. West Indies' 394 in the recent Test at Old Trafford comes in eighth on that list. The highest fourth-innings score to draw is 654 for 5, by England, who were set 696 to win by South Africa in the famous "Timeless Test" at Durban in 1938-39. The match had lasted ten days when the England team had to leave to catch the boat home. For a full list of the highest fourth-innings totals in Tests, click here.

When Sri Lanka scored 952 for 6, the Indian bowler Rajesh Chauhan bowled 78 overs for 276 runs - are these the most expensive bowling figures in Test cricket? asked Neelaka Jayamanne from Sri Lanka

That was the match at the Premadasa Stadium in Colombo in 1997-98 when Sri Lanka established a new record score for a Test innings. The Indian offspinner Rajesh Chauhan did indeed give away 276 runs - he took one wicket, Sanath Jayasuriya for 340 - but, perhaps surprisingly, this wasn't quite the most conceded by a bowler in a single innings. That record is held by the Australian slow left-armer Leslie "Chuck" Fleetwood-Smith, who took 1 for 298 as England piled up 903 for 7 - the highest Test total until Sri Lanka beat it - at The Oval in 1938. For a full list of bowlers conceding 200 runs in a Test innings, click here.

Who has scored the most Test centuries at Lord's? And is Dilip Vengsarkar's three centuries there a record for a visiting player? asked K. Kannan from the United Arab Emirates

The player with the most entries on the Lord's honours-board is England's Graham Gooch, with six centuries, including the highest score ever made on the ground - 333 against India in 1990. So far, Michael Vaughan has scored five Test centuries at Lord's (oddly, his highest is only 120), while Allan Lamb made four. Dilip Vengsarkar's three centuries for India at Lord's (in 1979, 1982 and 1986) is indeed unique for a visiting batsman.

In response to last week's question about the person with the most innings before making a duck, I thought that David Gower went something like 116 innings without making one. What is the record for most consecutive Test innings between ducks? asked Shyam Young from Australia

Yes, David Gower actually went 119 innings between making a duck in his first match as captain, against Pakistan at Lord's in 1982, and getting out for 0 against Australia in the Boxing Day Test at Melbourne in 1990-91 (he had scored 100 in the first innings of that match, so probably wasn't too upset). That is the only instance of a player having 100 Test innings without a duck in mid-career (last week's question was about innings without a duck from the start of a career). The closest to Gower was the West Indian Richie Richardson, who went 96 innings without being out for 0 between 1984-85 and 1991. The longest ongoing run is 52 innings, by South Africa's AB de Villiers (this does comprise the whole of his Test career so far). The record in one-day internationals is 120 innings, by India's Rahul Dravid between 1999-2000 and 2003-04. Martin Crowe of New Zealand (119) and Kepler Wessels (105 for Australia and South Africa) also had sequences of more than 100 ODI innings without being dismissed for a duck.