What's the highest Test partnership between two left-hand batters?

Was the partnership between Tom Latham and Devon Conway at the Bay Oval the highest in Tests between two left-handers? asked Jordan Banks from New Zealand
In the first innings of the third Test against West Indies in Mount Maunganui last week, Tom Latham (137) and Devon Conway (227) put on 323 for New Zealand's first wicket.

That is a record for any Test partnership between two left-hand batters - by one run! The previous highest was a fifth-wicket stand of 322 between Brian Lara and Jimmy Adams for West Indies against Australia in Kingston in 1999. There have been three other all-left-hand partnerships of 300 or over in Tests: 312 for the first wicket by Tamim Iqbal and Imrul Kayes for Bangladesh against Pakistan in Khulna in 2015, 302 for the second by David Warner and Usman Khawaja for Australia vs New Zealand in Perth in 2015, and 300 for the fifth by Sourav Ganguly and Yuvraj Singh for India vs Pakistan in Bengaluru in 2007.

New Zealand have had only one higher opening partnership in a Test: Glenn Turner and Terry Jarvis (both right-hand batters) put on 387 against West Indies in Georgetown in 1972.

How many people have made nineties in both innings of a Test? asked Karan Singh from India
There have been only five instances of a batter making two scores in the nineties in the same Test - and one man was responsible for two of those. The West Indian opener Gordon Greenidge made 91 and 96 against Pakistan in Georgetown in 1977, and almost three years later was out for 91 and 97 against New Zealand in Christchurch in 1980.

The first to do it was the Australian left-hander Clem Hill, with 98 and 97 against England in Adelaide in 1902. Hill had been dismissed for 99 in his previous innings in the series, in Melbourne. He was followed by Frank Woolley, with 95 and 93 for England vs Australia at Lord's in 1921, and (after Greenidge's double) by Mahela Jayawardene, who made 92 and 96 for Sri Lanka against New Zealand in Colombo in 2009.

I noticed in the accounts of the death of Somachandra de Silva that he was later Sri Lanka's ambassador to Poland. Is he unique among Test players? asked Neville de Alwis from Sri Lanka
Somachandra "DS" de Silva, who died last week aged 83, was appointed as Sri Lanka's Ambassador to Poland in 2014. This isn't really the sort of thing that features on anyone's database, but I can come up with a few other examples: the Yuvraj of Patiala (later the Maharaja of Patiala), who scored 60 in his only Test, against England in Madras (now Chennai) in 1934, was later India's Ambassador to Italy and the Netherlands. KS Duleepsinhji, who played 12 Tests for England, was later India's High Commissioner to Australia and New Zealand. The West Indian allrounder Learie Constantine was Trinidad & Tobago's High Commissioner in London from 1961 to 1964. And Abdul Hafeez Kardar, who played for India and also captained Pakistan, served as Pakistan's Ambassador to Switzerland.

It's not quite the same thing, but the former England captain Lord Harris was the Governor of Bombay from 1890 to 1895, while a later skipper, Stanley Jackson, was Governor of Bengal from 1927 to 1931.

Also not the same thing at all, but Ian Botham was appointed as trade envoy to Australia - described as a "trade ambassador" in some circles - during Boris Johnson's time as Britain's prime minister. Johnson's eventual successor Liz Truss was the international trade secretary at the time, and assured everyone that Botham would "bat for business Down Under".

It's worth mentioning that Julia Longbottom, the mother of the England women's captain Nat Sciver-Brunt, is currently the UK's Ambassador to Japan. Nat was born in Tokyo in 1992, when her mother was there on an earlier posting.

If anyone knows of any other Test-playing ambassadors, please let me know!

Who's the youngest man to play in a World Cup? asked David Brewster from England
The youngest man to appear in the 50-over World Cup did so in 2011: Nitish Kumar was only 16 when he played in three of Canada's matches in that tournament. Nitish, who made his ODI debut at the tender age of 15, later played in the T20 World Cup for the United States. The men's World Cup has also featured seven 17-year-olds: Javed Miandad of Pakistan in 1975, Sudath Pasqual (Sri Lanka) in 1979, Tom Odoyo (Kenya) in 1996, Talha Jubair (Bangladesh) in 2003, and Tamim Iqbal (Bangladesh), Malachi Jones (Bermuda) and Alexei Kervezee (Netherlands) in 2007.

If you're talking about the T20 World Cup, the youngest man to appear in that is Aayan Afzal Khan of the UAE, who was 16 during the 2022 tournament in Australia. Four 17-year-olds have also appeared in it: Ahmed Shehzad and Mohammad Amir of Pakistan in 2009, George Dockrell (Ireland) in 2010, and Afghanistan's Rashid Khan in 2016.

In the women's World Cup, Dane van Niekerk of South Africa played in the 2009 tournament in Australia aged 15. Two Irish women, Lucy O'Reilly (in 2014) and Gaby Lewis (2016) played in the T20 World Cup when they were 14.

How many people have scored 50+ runs and taken five wickets in T20 internationals? asked Haseeb Ahmad from Pakistan
Nine men fit the bill here, as this list shows, all of them from non-Test nations. Francisco Couana, with 104 and 5 for 19 for Mozambique against Cameroon in Kigali (Rwanda) in 2021, is the only man to score a century and take five wickets in the same T20I.

If you mean how many men have managed a fifty and a five-for at some stage in T20Is, not necessarily in the same game, there are currently 54.

No women have done this particular double in the same T20I, but eight have managed a fifty and four wickets, among them Ellyse Perry of Australia, against India in Sydney in January 2016, and South Africa's Sune Luus, against Ireland in Cape Town earlier this month. Thirty women have scored a fifty and taken a five-for at some stage of their T20I career, in different matches.