Does Prabath Jayasuriya have the most wickets for a bowler after their first two Tests?
And was Leicestershire's 584 the highest total for a side that ended up losing by an innings?
Prabath Jayasuriya is the eighth bowler to take three five-fors in his first three Tests • AFP/Getty Images
Leicestershire's first-innings total of 584 in that remarkable County Championship match at Grace Road last week was indeed the highest in any first-class match lost by an innings. The previous highest was Nottinghamshire's 527 against Northamptonshire at Wantage Road in 1995. There was a near-miss in Cardiff in 1993, when Glamorgan lost by ten wickets to Middlesex despite running up a first-innings total of 562 for 3 declared.
After his temperature-defying 134 in the first ODI against England in Chester-le-Street, the South African middle-order batter Rassie van der Dussen had an average of 74.95 in one-day internationals. That slipped slightly to 69.31 by the end of the series, but still left him clear at the top of this list - of highest-averaging batters, given a minimum of six innings. Next come Ryan ten Doeschate of Netherlands (67.00), Pakistan's captain Babar Azam (59.22) and Aqib Ilyas of Oman (58.00), who's just ahead of Virat Kohli (57.68).
The Sri Lankan slow left-armer Prabath Jayasuriya followed his debut figures of 6 for 118 and 6 for 59 in the victory over Australia in Galle with 5 for 82 and 4 for 135 against Pakistan, also in Galle. That's 21 wickets in his first two Test matches: the record is 24, by the Indian legspinner Narendra Hirwani, helped by taking 16 on his debut, against West Indies in Madras in 1987-88. The England seamer Alec Bedser took 22 wickets after his first two Tests, while Australia's Bob Massie also had 21.
I wasn't sure, so I asked the ICC for a ruling, and was told: "All matches played at the Games, including Barbados, will be designated as Twenty20 internationals." It means that some of the Barbados players will show up afterwards as having played official internationals for two teams.
That match-winning undefeated 160 by the Pakistan opener Abdullah Shafique against Sri Lanka in Galle last week does give him 720 runs after six Tests. The only men to have scored more are a distinguished trio: Sunil Gavaskar (912), Don Bradman (862) and George Headley (730). Shafique has leapfrogged the likes of Frank Worrell (695), KS Ranjitsinhji (678), Vinod Kambli (673) and current player Devon Conway (659).
Steven Lynch is the editor of the updated edition of Wisden on the Ashes