A hundred for McGrath, and a near-miss for Tendulkar

I believe that Glenn McGrath has inflicted 100 ducks on batsmen in Tests. Has anyone done more than that? asked Vinish Garg from India

You're right, Glenn McGrath has dismissed 100 batsmen for ducks during his distinguished career, which has so far included 521 Test wickets in all. No-one else has managed as many as that: Shane Warne is currently second with 89, and Muttiah Muralitharan third with 82. Wasim Akram and Courtney Walsh both removed 79 batsmen for ducks, and Waqar Younis and Curtly Ambrose managed 76, ahead of the next current player, Shaun Pollock (69). Wasim Akram leads the way in ODIs, having inflicted 110 ducks, way ahead of the next man, his old sparring partner Waqar Younis (72). McGrath is third on that list, with 62, five ahead of Chaminda Vaas.

Sachin Tendulkar was out in the nineties again in the recent ODI against Sri Lanka. Who has made the most nineties in ODIs? asked Chirag Doshi from Australia

Sachin Tendulkar's 93 in the first ODI against Sri Lanka at Nagpur last week was his ninth score between 90 and 99 in ODIs, to go with his record 38 one-day centuries. Two other players have reached 90 nine times in ODIs without completing their hundred: Zimbabwe's Grant Flower and Aravinda de Silva of Sri Lanka. Next come the New Zealander Nathan Astle and India's Mohammad Azharuddin, with seven apiece.

Once again in the Super Test Virender Sehwag did well in the first innings and badly in the second. Does anyone have a bigger difference between their averages in the two innings? asked Chandu Datar from Japan

Virender Sehwag currently averages 73.46 in the first innings in Tests, and only 24.82 in the second, a difference of 48.64. Among players who had a minimum of 20 Test innings, only two have a bigger gap. The New Zealander John F Reid (68.41 in the first innings, 12.09 in the second) lies second with a difference of 56.32, but out in front is another Indian, Vinod Kambli - he averaged 69.13 in the first innings and just 9.40 in the second, a difference of 59.73. The leader the other way round, with a second-innings average 36.73 runs higher than his first-innings one (70.00 against 33.27), was also born in India, although he scored his runs for England - KS Ranjitsinhji.

Are there any grounds which have staged just one Test match? asked Bob Palmer from Cairns

Actually there are currently 18 - and in case you were wondering Cairns isn't one of them, as Cazaly's Oval has staged two! Six of the one-timers are in India (at Chandigarh, Jaipur, Jalandhar, two grounds in Lucknow, and the Mumbai Gymkhana) and six in Pakistan (at Bahawalpur, Gujranwala, Multan, Peshawar, Rawalpindi, and the Karachi Defence Stadium), two in South Africa (East London and Potchefstroom) and West Indies (Grenada and St Vincent), and one each in England (Bramall Lane, Sheffield) and Zimbabwe (Bulawayo Athletic Club). For a full list of the matches played at all the Test grounds, click here. There are also 24 grounds which have staged a solitary ODI: for a list of those, click here. The Bulawayo Athletic Club and Lucknow's KD Singh Stadium are on that list, too.

A group of us were talking about what the average innings score in a Test might be. It was suggested that it would not be more than 280 - were we close? asked Robert Hanlon from New Zealand

You were pretty close - if you include the completed innings from all Tests, the average total is 271.28. The trend is upwards, slowly: the average for Tests since 2000 is 281.45. Over all Test cricket the average first-innings total is 293.55, the second 294.14, the third 235.65, and the fourth innings 194.60.

In a recent column you talked about Andrew Strauss being the fastest to 1000 Test runs in terms of time - but who did it in the fewest number of innings? asked David Pearce from Australia

This is one batting record that isn't held by Don Bradman, who took 13 innings to pass 1000 runs in Tests. Two people did it in 12, though: Herbert Sutcliffe, the England opener whose record in terms of time was broken recently by Andrew Strauss (who took seven more innings but 16 fewer days), and the West Indian Everton Weekes. Another Australian, Neil Harvey, and India's Vinod Kambli reached 1000 runs in 14 innings. For a full list, click here.