Most sixes, and 500 one-day wins

	England hit a record 15 sixes against New Zealand in the T20 in Auckland in February © Getty Images Enlarge
Related Links Ask Steven : Last week's column: Bowler-captains, and bowling records

England hit 15 sixes in a T20 international against New Zealand recently. Was this a record? asked James Myers from Scotland
The 15 sixes in that innings in Auckland earlier this month was an England record - it was previously 11, against West Indies in the World Twenty20 in Providence in May 2010 - but it has been exceeded twice by other countries. Australia hit 16 sixes (and only six fours) against India in Bridgetown, also in the World Twenty20, in May 2010. But the overall record is South Africa's 17 sixes - 15 of them by openers Loots Bosman (nine) and Graeme Smith - against England in Centurion in November 2009. The record for both sides in a match is 24, in that Australia-India game in Bridgetown, and also by New Zealand (11) and India (13) in Christchurch in February 2009.

Australia recently became the first team to win 500 one-day internationals. Which team is next? asked Muqaddas Hussain from Pakistan
Australia brought up their 500th victory in one-day internationals in Melbourne earlier this month, in the match that completed their 5-0 whitewash over West Indies. That was their 811th official ODI. Next on the overall list at the moment are Pakistan (419 wins from 780 matches), India (405 out of 817) and West Indies (353 out of 687). Ricky Ponting played in more than half those Australian victories - he finished on the winning side in 262 ODIs in all, and heads that particular list: Sachin Tendulkar is next with 234 wins, one more than Sanath Jayasuriya. Australia have a success rate of 64.34% in ODIs (ignoring no-results and counting a tie as half a win), a percentage shaded only by South Africa (64.40) among the Test-playing nations. For the full list, click here.

I spotted that the only Indian to score twin hundreds against mighty Australia was Vijay Hazare. Have any other Indians come close? asked Azweer from India
Vijay Hazare made 116 and 145 in Adelaide in 1947-48 - in a match India still lost by an innings! Don Bradman had earlier made 201 (before Hazare bowled him), and Australia's 674 was enough for them not to have to bat again, despite Hazare's heroics. The closest any Indian has come to repeating this feat was in Perth in 1977-78, when Mohinder Amarnath followed his first innings of 90 with a round 100 in the second. In Adelaide in 2003-04, Rahul Dravid scored 233 in the first innings, then guided India to victory with 72 not out in the second. Four other Indians have scored more than 70 in each innings of a Test against Australia, three of them in the same series in 1967-68: the Nawab of Pataudi made 75 and 85 (batting almost on one leg) in the second Test, in Melbourne, ML Jaisimha scored 74 and 101 in the third, in Brisbane, and the following week Syed Abid Ali hit 78 and 81 in Sydney. Gundappa Viswanath scored 89 and 73 against Australia in Adelaide in 1977-78.

Is it true that Alastair Cook reached 7000 Test runs at a younger age than anyone else - even Sachin Tendulkar? asked James McCormack via Facebook
It is true: Alastair Cook reached 7000 runs last December, in his 86th Test, about a fortnight short of his 28th birthday (which is on Christmas Day). Sachin Tendulkar was seven months older when he reached 7000, in his 85th Test, in November 2001. The only others to reach 7000 Test runs before turning 30 are Graeme Smith and Jacques Kallis, who were both 29. Cook currently has 7117 runs in 87 Tests: Tendulkar, the only man so far to reach 8000 before his 30th birthday, got there in May 2002, in his 96th match, a month after turning 29.

When West Indies made 131 in a T20 international against South Africa in 2008, the biggest single contributor was Extras, with 29. Is this the only such instance in a completed innings? asked Ragheb Naik from Delhi
West Indies made 131 for 7 in that match, in Johannesburg in January 2008, with Extras (29) beating Dwayne Bravo (24) as the innings top scorer. That was the first such instance in T20 internationals, but there have been two more since: when West Indies bowled Ireland out for 68 in the World Twenty20 in Providence in April 2010, the innings top score again came from Extras (19), and it also happened in the World Twenty20 qualifying tournament in Dubai in March 2012, when the highest contributor to Canada's total of 135 for 8 against Scotland was Extras, with 23. All three teams for whom Mr Extras top-scored ended up losing.

How many times has one batsman beaten the opposition's score on his own in a one-day international? asked Kevin Johnstone from Sydney
There are 43 occasions when one batsman has outscored the opposition on his own in a one-day international. The biggest discrepancy came in a match between Sri Lanka and India in Sharjah in October 2000: Sanath Jayasuriya hammered 189, then India (chasing 300) were bundled out for 54, thus losing to Jayasuriya alone by 135 runs! In the match in Paarl in January 2012, three South Africans - Hashim Amla (112), Jacques Kallis (72) and AB de Villiers (52) - all scored more than Sri Lanka's paltry total of 43. That replicated the feat of Australia - Matthew Hayden (88), Andrew Symonds (59) and Darren Lehmann (50 not out) - when Namibia were bowled out for 45 (Glenn McGrath 7 for 15) in Potchefstroom during the 2003 World Cup.