First-day declarations, and Parthiv's eight-year wait

How often has a captain declared on the first day of a Test, as Faf du Plessis did in Adelaide? asked Nick Battcock from England
South Africa's opportunistic closure in Adelaide last week - which came after Faf du Plessis overheard the umpires telling David Warner he couldn't bat straight away - was only the fourth time in Test history that a captain had declared on the opening day. The first instance was as late as 1949… and wasn't actually legal under the regulations in force at the time. England's captain George Mann was forced to apologise after declaring at 313 for 9 late on the first day against New Zealand at Lord's. The regulations in England had, since 1946, allowed a first-day declaration if the total was past 300 - but that was only for county cricket and not for international matches, even though those New Zealand Tests lasted only three days (they were all drawn, after which all Tests in England were scheduled for five). The New Zealanders were not too bothered, as they didn't lose a wicket in the last 15 minutes of the day. Since then Intikhab Alam closed Pakistan's first innings at 130 for 9 on a rain-affected pitch at Lord's in 1974 (England lost one wicket before the close), and Michael Clarke called his side in at 237 for 9 near the end of the first day against India in Hyderabad in 2012-13. Clarke and du Plessis ended up losing, while Intikhab and Mann drew the Tests.

Parthiv Patel made a Test comeback against England after around eight years - and more than 80 Tests - out of the side. Was this a record? asked Chandra Nagarajah from India
Parthiv Patel, who returned to India's side in Mohali after an injury to Wriddhaman Saha, had missed 83 matches since his previous Test, against Sri Lanka in Colombo in August 2008. It meant that Parthiv reclaimed a record he had held once before: he had already missed 43 Tests between October 2004 and his recall for that match in Sri Lanka in 2008. That was the Indian record until Piyush Chawla missed 49 matches between 2007-08 and 2012-13. Parthiv's gap is not an Indian record in terms of time, as Lala Amarnath went more than 12 years between Test appearances in 1933-34 and 1946.

New Zealand's new opener Jeet Raval was born in India. How many other "overseas" players have they had? asked Khanwakar David from India
The Auckland opener Jeet Raval became the 25th person born outside New Zealand to be capped by them in a Test, when he made his debut against Pakistan in Christchurch earlier this month. He's the fourth from India after Ted Badcock - who's theoretically New Zealand Test player No. 1, being the earliest in alphabetical order from their inaugural Test against England in Christchurch in 1929-30) - 1960s offspinner Tom Puna (who, like Raval, was born in Gujarat), and legspinner Ish Sodhi (born in Ludhiana), who played in the recent series in India. Three of Raval's team-mates in the recent Test in Hamilton were also born overseas: BJ Watling and Neil Wagner in South Africa, and Colin de Grandhomme in nearby Zimbabwe. Badcock was born in Abbottabad, which is now part of Pakistan. Six New Zealand Test players were born in England (Roger Blunt, Roy Harford, Mark Haslam, Vic Pollard, Roger Twose and Justin Vaughan) and six in Australia (Dean Brownlie, Doug Freeman, Ken Hough, Mathew Sinclair, Dennis Smith and Scott Styris). Grant Elliott, Colin Munro and Kruger van Wyk were also born in South Africa; the other countries involved are Kenya (Dipak Patel), Scotland (Charles Rowe) and Trinidad (Sam Guillen).

What's the lowest Test total by a team who won by an innings? asked Vamsi M from India
The lowest total that was sufficient to win a Test by an innings is 153, by Australia in Melbourne in 1931-32. On a vicious pitch affected by rain, they bowled South Africa out for 36 and 45, with the venerable slow left-armer Bert "Dainty" Ironmonger - he was two months short of his 50th birthday - taking 5 for 6 in the first innings and 6 for 18 in the second. Australia, for whom Don Bradman was unable to bat after injuring himself in the dressing room, thus won by an innings and 72 runs. That 153 is actually the fewest required to win a Test by any margin, although it was threatened by England's 156 runs - 81 for 7 declared and 75 for 6 - to defeat West Indies (102 and 51 for 6 dec) on another sticky wicket in Bridgetown in 1934-35.

I noticed that England won ten consecutive ODIs in 2012. Was this a record? asked George Robinson from England
That successful sequence started in February 2012 in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, where England won four one-day internationals in a row against Pakistan. They then beat West Indies in two matches at home in June 2012, before taking all four completed games of a series against Australia. The run - England's best in ODIs - came to an end when South Africa won by 80 runs in Southampton in August. The sequence included two abandoned games and a no-result. The best run of all is Australia's 21 successive wins between January and May 2003, a period that included that year's World Cup in South Africa. Pakistan (2007-08) and South Africa (2005) come next, with 12 wins in a row.

What's the highest partnership in Tests between Nos. 10 and 11 in the batting order? asked Harry Johnston from England
The highest partnership in Tests by the last two batsmen in the order is 128, by the England fast bowlers Ken Higgs (63) and John Snow (59 not out) against West Indies at The Oval in 1966. It completed a remarkable revival by England, who reached 527 after being 166 for 7. The stand - two short of the tenth-wicket record in Tests at the time - is recalled in the recent book The Conquests of 1966 by Brian Scovell, a journalist who covered that memorable Test series as well as England's victory in the football World Cup. "Finally David Holford threw up a flighted ball, and Higgs drove it nicely back at him to catch just off his bootlaces," he wrote. "The history-making last stand was over." There have now been eight higher tenth-wicket partnerships in Tests, but all of them featured a higher-ranked batsman alongside the No. 11. The biggest of all is 198, between Joe Root (England's No. 5) and last man Jimmy Anderson, against India at Trent Bridge in 2014.

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