A six-ton Test, and Imran's prolific 30s

In the recent Test at the WACA six batsmen reached 50 - and all of them went on to make centuries. Was this a record? asked Ryan Kelly from New Zealand
All six half-centuries in the second Test between Australia and New Zealand in Perth were converted to hundreds. There had been no previous Tests in which five or six scores of 50-plus were all translated into three figures - but, rather surprisingly, there is a case of seven! In Kolkata in 2009-10, Alviro Petersen (100 on debut) and Hashim Amla (114 and 123 not out) made centuries for South Africa, and Virender Sehwag (165), Sachin Tendulkar (106), VVS Laxman (143 not out) and MS Dhoni (132 not out) followed suit as India set up an innings victory. The next highest score in the match was 28, by Amit Mishra.

Ross Taylor scored 326 runs in all in the Perth Test. Is this a new record for a New Zealander? asked Brian Hill from New Zealand
Ross Taylor's 326 runs in Perth - 290 in the first innings and 36 not out in the second - was the 29th-highest match aggregate in all Tests, a list headed by Graham Gooch's 456 (333 and 123) for England against India at Lord's in 1990. Two of the higher aggregates were by New Zealanders: Stephen Fleming amassed 343 runs (274 and 69, both not out) against Sri Lanka in Colombo in 2002-03, and Martin Crowe 329 (30 and 299) against Sri Lanka in Wellington in 1990-91. Next come Kane Williamson, with 311 (69 and 242 not out) against Sri Lanka at Wellington earlier this year, and Brendon McCullum with 310 (8 and 302) against India in Wellington in 2013-14. Taylor's 290 was the third-highest Test score for New Zealand, after McCullum's 302 and Crowe's 299, and their highest overseas, beating Fleming's 274 not out.

I think Glenn McGrath dismissed the most batsmen for ducks in Tests. But who holds the record in ODIs? asked Mitchell Langley from Australia
You're right, Glenn McGrath dismissed most batsmen for ducks in Tests - 104, just ahead of Muttiah Muralitharan and Shane Warne (both 102). Wasim Akram and Courtney Walsh are next with 79: the leading current bowler, in ninth place, is Dale Steyn with 74. There's a clear leader in one-day internationals, where Wasim Akram inflicted 110 ducks. Next is Chaminda Vaas, with 76, just ahead of Wasim's old sparring partner Waqar Younis (72), with McGrath on 71. Lasith Malinga is currently eighth with 50. Umar Gul leads the way in Twenty20 internationals, hitting the stumps 18 times: next come the Sri Lankan pair of Nuwan Kulasekara and Angelo Mathews, with ten apiece.

Is David Lloyd the only batsman to have scored a century in both Tests and one-day internationals without scoring a fifty? asked Bharani Ganesan from the United States
The England left-hand batsman turned commentator David Lloyd - better known perhaps as "Bumble" - scored one Test century (214 not out against India at Edgbaston in 1974, in his second match) and one in ODIs - 116 not out against Pakistan at Trent Bridge later that year. Apart from that he never reached 50 in international cricket: on the 1974-75 Ashes tour he was out for 49 in the Perth Test and 49 again in an ODI in Melbourne. He is indeed the only player to make a century in both Tests and ODIs but no fifties, although there are six other players - two of them current - who made two international hundreds without also recording a score of 50-99. The England pair of Allan Steel and Barry Knight, and the Australian Harry "Dasher" Graham, made two centuries in Tests, as has the present-day Indian batsman Lokesh Rahul. Jeremy Bray of Ireland and the current Afghanistan batsman Karim Sadiq have made two centuries in one-day internationals.

Am I right in thinking that Imran Khan took more Test wickets after his 30th birthday than before? asked Shoeb Bari from the United States
I'm afraid you're not quite right - at the time of his 30th birthday, in November 1982, Imran Khan had taken 192 wickets in 43 Tests. After turning 30 he took 170 more wickets in 45 matches, which included a period when he didn't bowl much because of leg trouble. Still, only 15 bowlers have taken more Test wickets than Imran after turning 30 (Chris Martin also claimed 170). Top of the list is Muttiah Muralitharan with 388, just ahead of Shane Warne (386). Then come Anil Kumble (343) and Courtney Walsh (341). The Australian legspinner Clarrie Grimmett took 216 Test wickets, all after making his debut at the age of 33.

I spotted that India's Farokh Engineer was out caught and bowled in both innings at Leeds in 1967. But that was by different bowlers - has anyone ever been "c&b" twice by the same man? asked Maneck Dewan from India
Farokh Engineer was caught and bowled by Ray Illingworth in the first innings and Brian Close in the second - a Yorkshire double! - against England at Headingley in 1967. He was the 13th man to fall this way in both innings, and there have been eight more since, most recently New Zealand's Ross Taylor (to Kevin Pietersen and Monty Panesar) against England in Hamilton in 2007-08. Overall, four of those 21 batsmen fell to the same bowler. In Melbourne in 1884-85 Australia's John Trumble was caught and bowled in both innings by Billy Barnes of England. It didn't happen again until 1948-49, when Everton Weekes fell this way to Indian offspinner Ghulam Ahmed in both innings in Calcutta: Weekes probably wasn't too upset, as he'd scored 162 and 101! In Melbourne in 1950-51, as England closed in on their first victory over Australia since the war, Keith Miller was caught and bowled in both innings by the visiting captain Freddie Brown. And in Sydney in 1960-61 Richie Benaud went this way twice to the West Indian slow left-armer Alf Valentine.

Send in your questions using our feedback form.