How many double-century partnerships have there been in the IPL?

Which IPL player once scored 546 in a school match? asked Steve Rafferty from New Zealand
This voracious batsman is Prithvi Shaw, who's now 18: he made his IPL debut for Delhi Daredevils (opening the batting with Gautam Gambhir) against Kings XI Punjab in Delhi last month. In November 2013, Shaw hit 546 for Rizvi Springfield High School against St Francis D'Assisi in a Harris Shield inter-school match on the Azad Maidan in Mumbai. Shaw hit 85 fours and five sixes in the highest innings anywhere since 1901 - but that was surpassed in January 2016, when Pranav Dhanawade amassed 1009 not out for KC Gandhi English School against Arya Gurukul in Mumbai. For a list of the highest scores in minor cricket, click here.

Shaw later made 120 on his first-class debut, for Mumbai against Tamil Nadu in Rajkot in January 2017, and added another century in his first Duleep Trophy match, for India Red against Blue in Lucknow in September 2017, to emulate Sachin Tendulkar. Earlier this year, Shaw captained India to victory in the Under-19 World Cup in New Zealand.

How many double-century partnerships have there been in the IPL? asked Maneck Jhunjhunwala from India
As I write, there have been four partnerships of 200 or more in the IPL. The top two both involve the Royal Challengers Bangalore pair of Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers: they put on 229 against Gujarat Lions in Bengaluru in 2016, a year after sharing an unbroken stand of 215 against Mumbai Indians in Mumbai.

RCB were on the receiving end when Adam Gilchrist and Shaun Marsh added 206 - the IPL's first double-century partnership - for Kings XI Punjab in Dharamsala in 2011. Finally, Kohli shared an unbroken stand of 204 with Chris Gayle against Delhi Daredevils in Delhi in 2012.

There have been nine double-century partnerships in all senior T20 cricket.

Very often winning the toss has a big influence on the result. Which captain has the longest streak of winning or losing the toss? asked Shiladitya from Japan
The record for successive toss wins by a captain in Tests is nine, by England's Colin Cowdrey between March 1960 and June 1961. Peter May had won the three tosses before Cowdrey took over, making 12 in a row for England, a run equalled by Australia (under Mark Taylor and Steve Waugh) in 1998 and 1999. Wally Hammond and Ray Illingworth (England), Clive Lloyd and Richie Richardson (West Indies) all had sequences of eight successive toss wins.

The worst run in Tests is ten matches without winning the toss, by England's Nasser Hussain, between November 2000 and December 2001. Towards the end of that sequence, David Hopps (then of the Guardian, but now of this parish), wrote: "The joke about him being a useless tosser is now so old that Tommy Docherty will soon be tempted to use it in his after-dinner speeches." The Indians Sunil Gavaskar and MS Dhoni both had runs of nine successive Tests in which they failed to win the toss.

In one-day internationals, Andy Flower (Zimbabwe) and Arjuna Ranatunga (Sri Lanka) both won ten tosses in a row in the late 1990s; at around the same time Brian Lara (West Indies) lost 12 in succession, a record threatened by Peter Borren of Netherlands in 2013, who finally won one after losing 11 straight since 2011. Darren Sammy (West Indies) won ten successive T20I tosses in 2015 and 2016, while MS Dhoni lost 11 in a row between 2014 and 2016.

Karun Nair has scored only 374 Test runs but that includes a triple-century. Has anyone with a triple made fewer? asked Dinesh Satish from India
Karun Nair's peculiar Test career - 303 not out against England in Chennai in December 2016, but only 71 runs in six other innings - makes him the clear leader on this list, for now at least. His first target, assuming he gets back into the team, is England's Andy Sandham: his career total of 879 runs in Tests included 325 in his last one, against West Indies in Kingston in 1929-30. All the other batsmen who have scored Test triple-centuries passed 2000 runs, although Lawrence Rowe of West Indies (2047) and Australia's Bob Cowper (2061) only just got there.

I recently met the former England spinner John Childs, and wondered whether he held a unique Test record - he had four innings, but was never out? asked Paul Hancock from England
The former Gloucestershire and Essex slow left-armer John Childs won two Test caps for England in 1988, and did indeed remain unbeaten in all four of his innings - no mean feat for someone whose first-class average was below 10.

Childs is one of three players who had four Test innings and were not out in all of them: the others were Afaq Hussain of Pakistan and Tinu Yohannan of India. But the holder of this strange record is the Pakistan seamer Aizaz Cheema, who was not out in all five of his innings, spread across no fewer than seven Tests in 2011 and 2012. He managed just one run, against Bangladesh in Mirpur.