Late arrivals, and five five-fors in a Test

Mohammad Yousuf almost played in a Test the day after he arrived in England. Has anyone ever missed the start of a Test they played in? asked Tom Evison from Derby
As cricket's schedules get tighter and tighter this sort of thing becomes more and more likely: last year Chris Gayle arrived in England only about 48 hours before he was due to captain West Indies in a Test at Lord's. I remember Colin Cowdrey being flown out to Australia as an emergency replacement in 1974-75, and a lot of fuss was made about him being rushed into the second Test, in Perth - but actually he got there four days beforehand, which would probably be considered quite a long acclimatisation period these days.

The most unusual case I'm aware of was described by the great West Indian Everton Weekes in his recent autobiography. He flew in to Jamaica for the fourth Test of the 1947-48 home series against England, and actually saw the match in progress as his plane came in to land. He had originally been dropped, but George Headley was injured and West Indies needed a replacement: the choice was between Weekes and the Jamaican JK Holt. Weekes wrote: "The plane to Jamaica arrived late. Flying over Kingston we saw that the game had already started. I did not know if I was listed in the final team. I got to the hotel and the first question I asked an official was 'Is Weekes in the team?' I was told yes, and that Holt was substituting for me on the field. I rushed to the ground and walked on to the field amidst loud boos and what seemed like a lifetime of jeering." The jeering was because the crowd wanted the local favourite Holt to play instead. They shut up a bit when Weekes made 141 - his first Test century - when West Indies batted.

What is the highest number of five-fors in the same Test? asked Viki from India via Facebook
Rather surprisingly, there has only been one instance in Tests of five separate cases of bowlers taking five wickets in a single innings. That was in the Ashes series of 1902, in the only Test match ever played in Sheffield. The legendary pair of Sydney Barnes and Wilfred Rhodes took five-fors for England, while Monty Noble (in both innings) and Jack Saunders did so for Australia. There have been 31 further instances of four separate five-wicket hauls in the same Test, the most recent one coming in the match between West Indies and India in Kingston in 2006: the bowlers concerned were Jerome Taylor, Harbhajan Singh, Corey Collymore and Anil Kumble.

Kumar Sangakkara reached 8000 Test runs during the third Test in Colombo. Is he the fastest player, in terms of innings, to achieve that landmark? asked Keith D'Souza from Nigeria
Kumar Sangakkara did indeed pass 8000 runs in the second innings of the recent third Test against India in Colombo, in what was his 152nd innings in all. And that does break the previous record, held by another player in the same match - Sachin Tendulkar. He reached 8000 runs in his 154th Test innings, three fewer than Garry Sobers and four fewer than Rahul Dravid. Sangakkara was playing in his 91st Test, equalling Sobers' record (Matthew Hayden reached 8000 runs in his 92nd Test, Dravid and Brian Lara in 94, Sunil Gavaskar in 95, and Tendulkar in 96).

Who was the fastest to 7000 runs in Tests in terms of innings? Was it Virender Sehwag? asked Anik from India
Seems to be a theme here! Virender Sehwag reached 7000 runs during his first-innings century in the recent third Test in Colombo. That was his 79th Test - which equals the record set by Garry Sobers. Next come Sunil Gavaskar, Wally Hammond and Matthew Hayden, who all reached 7000 in their 80th Test. Hammond was quickest in terms of innings (131), with Sehwag next on 134, just ahead of Sachin Tendulkar (136), Sobers and Kumar Sangakkara (138). We should probably mention Don Bradman here: he finished with 6996 runs in 52 Tests (80 innings).

Which bowler has dismissed the most people for ducks on his Test debut? asked Cal Pritchard via Facebook
I had to ask Travis the Cricinfo database-meister about this one, and we were both expecting it to be someone from the early days of Test cricket... but it turns out to have been more recent than that. Six different bowlers have dismissed four batsmen for ducks on their debut - and all of them have been since the Second World War. The first was Fred Trueman, for England v India at Headingley in 1952 (three of them in the second innings, as India lurched to an unprecedented 0 for 4). Two other Englishmen followed suit: John Lever, against India in Delhi in 1976-77, and Richard Johnson, against Zimbabwe in Chester-le-Street in 2003. Ravi Shastri dismissed four New Zealanders for ducks on his debut, for India in Wellington in 1980-81 (he took six wickets n the match, and none of them scored more than 4), while Mohammad Sami also did it against New Zealand, for Pakistan in Auckland in 2000-01. The most recent bowler to achieve the feat was the Australian offspinner Jason Krejza, whose 12 Indian wickets in Nagpur in 2008-09 included four who failed to score.

Sachin Tendulkar played his first 32 Test matches on different grounds. Is this a record? asked PSK Balaji from India
I thought that no one could possibly approach that - but I learned a long time ago never to assume anything as far as cricket's concerned. And I was right: it turns out that Sanjay Manjrekar's first 33 Tests were all on different grounds, so he pips Tendulkar by one. Manjrekar played 37 Tests in all, and only ever played more than once on two grounds - Bangalore and Ahmedabad. In joint third place, quite a long way behind, are India's Javagal Srinath and the West Indian wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin, who both played their first 24 Tests on different grounds.

Finally there's an update on last week's question about opening bowlers waiting a long time for their first wicket of an innings, from the indefatigable Charles Davis in Melbourne:
"Eric Atkinson at Bridgetown 1957-58 (when Hanif Mohammad made his 337) took close to 247 overs to get his first wicket (exact figure not available); Fred Rumsey at Old Trafford, 1964, took his first wicket in the 256th over (and his second four balls later); Maurice Tate at The Oval, 1930, took his first wicket with the final ball of the innings of 695, in the 257th over. Tate 'beat' Rumsey by one delivery, 1545 balls to 1544, including no-balls. But they all have to tip their hats to Norman Gordon of South Africa, who in the final innings of the notorious ten-day Timeless Test in Durban in 1938-39, did not take a wicket until the 207th eight-ball over, totalling 1658 balls. It appears that the 707 runs scored before Dilhara Fernando took his wicket in the recent match is the most in terms of runs. In the instances you refer to, Herman Griffith took his first wicket in the 207th over, and Merv Waite's was in the 216th."