Consistent bowlers and favourite foes

Salman Butt has now scored four ODI centuries, and all of them have been against India. Has anyone else scored his first four centuries against the same opposition? asked Hamza from Pakistan

Rather surprisingly, two other people have emulated Butt's feat of scoring his first four ODI centuries against the same opposition. Desmond Haynes actually scored his first six one-day centuries for West Indies against Australia, while the first four of VVS Laxman's six ODI hundreds for India all came against Australia.

That remarkable consistency from Australia's bowlers at Brisbane last week - Brett Lee took four wickets in each innings, Stuart Clark and Mitchell Johnson two, and Stuart MacGill and Andrew Symonds one each - has been replicated only once before by five bowlers in a Test. That was way back in 1931-32, when Australia played South Africa at Adelaide: Clarrie Grimmett took seven wickets in each innings, Bill O'Reilly two and Stan McCabe one. Bill Hunt and "Pud" Thurlow, who were both winning their only Test caps, failed to take a wicket in either innings. When West Indies played Bangladesh at Chittagong in 2002-03 they did it with four bowlers - Pedro Collins and Daren Powell took three wickets in each innings, Vasbert Drakes and Jermaine Lawson two - while at The Oval in 1890, England used only three against Australia. Fred Martin took six wickets in each innings in that game, George Lohmann three, and John Sharpe one.

What is the lowest total which was still good enough to earn an innings victory in a Test? I saw that India once made only 288 but still beat Sri Lanka by an innings - is that the record? asked Sunil Kumar from India

That match at Chandigarh in 1990-91 is well down the list - there have actually been 12 lower totals that were good enough to secure innings victories. The lowest of all is 153, by Australia against South Africa (36 and 45) at Melbourne in 1931-32. There are two other totals of less than 200 which produced innings wins: England made 172 and beat Australia (81 and 70) at Old Trafford in 1888, while Australia's 199 for 8 declared was more than enough to beat New Zealand (42 and 54) in the first ever Test between the countries, at Wellington in 1945-46.

Who apart from Mohammad Azharuddin has scored 199 in a Test match? asked Rakesh from India

Six men have been dismissed for 199 in a Test, all of them relatively recently. The first was Mudassar Nazar, for Pakistan against India at Faisalabad in 1984-85, followed by Azharuddin for India v Sri Lanka at Kanpur in 1986-87, Matthew Elliott for Australia v England at Headingley in 1997, Sanath Jayasuriya for Sri Lanka v India in Colombo in 1997-98, Steve Waugh for Australia v West Indies at Bridgetown in 1998-99, and Younis Khan for Pakistan v India at Lahore in 2005-06. There has also been one instance of a player being stranded on 199 not out - Andy Flower, for Zimbabwe v South Africa at Harare in 2001-02. He had already scored 142 in the first innings.

I noted recently that Farveez Maharoof has taken more ODI wickets than first-class ones (100 v 91). Can you confirm that this is indeed a rarity for someone having taken a meaningful number of ODI wickets? asked Andrew Pulver from Australia

It's reasonably rare, although seven men who have taken 100 one-day wickets have more in ODIs than in first-class cricket. Top of the list is Maharoof's Sri Lanka team-mate Sanath Jayasuriya, who has 307 wickets in ODIs but only 194 in first-class games. Sachin Tendulkar has the next-biggest difference - 154 to 67 - and then comes another Indian, Ajit Agarkar (288 to 226). The others with more ODI wickets than first-class ones are Kenya's Thomas Odoyo (107 v 60), Chris Harris of New Zealand (203 v 157), and the West Indian Chris Gayle (140 v 107). The Dutchman Tim de Leede has 29 wickets in ODIs, but none at all in first-class cricket.

Paul Atkins, the former Surrey batsman, recently made a first-class comeback in South Africa, more than 13 years after his previous match. Is this a record? asked David Stevens from Aylesbury

Atkins made his debut for Surrey in 1988, scoring 114 not out against Cambridge University at The Oval. He then made 99 in his first County Championship game, against Lancashire at Southport a week later. That was the end of the good news, though: he never approached such heights again, and was released by Surrey at the end of 1993 without having added to his tally of hundreds. Atkins, by then 40, reappeared in South African domestic cricket last winter for KwaZulu-Natal Inland against South Western Districts at Oudtshoorn, making 4 and 18 in a 177-run victory for his side. This was indeed more than 13 years after his previous first-class appearance - but that is nowhere near the record, which is held by the Reverend Reginald Moss, an Oxford Blue whose 16th first-class appearance, for Worcestershire in 1925, when he was 57 - his County Championship debut - came almost 32 years after his previous one, against the touring Australians in 1893. More recently a slow left-armer called Jim Thomson made his first-class debut for Scotland in 1962 - and played his next game for them 22 years later, in 1984.