More tons than fifties, and winning after making 31

Galle won a match the other day despite being bowled out for 31 in their first innings. Was this the lowest total by a side which went on to win a first-class match? asked Norton de Silva from Sri Lanka
Galle won their Premier League relegation playoff against the Air Force earlier this month despite being bowled out for 31 on the first morning in Panagoda. Galle - whose side included eight first-class debutants - made 295 second time round, then the Air Force, set only 112 to win, were shot down for 107. Galle's first-innings total equalled the 31 made by Gloucestershire in the first innings of a County Championship match in Bristol in 1924: after demolishing Middlesex for 74 they scored 294 in their second innings - Wally Hammond 174 not out - then bowled Middlesex out again for 190, to win by 61 runs. There were two other low first-innings totals in the early 19th century: the Gentlemen won after being bowled out for 31 by the Players at Lord's in 1848, while in Brighton in 1827, "England" beat Sussex despite being rolled over for 27 in their first innings. (This refers to the first innings of a match, not either side's first one.) The lowest in a Test match is England's 45 against Australia in Sydney in 1886-87.

After the opening Test in Antigua, Gary Ballance has more hundreds than fifties - four to three. Who's the leader in this regard? asked James Price from England
Matthew Hayden scored 30 Test centuries, but only 29 fifties: none of the nine men above him on the Test hundreds list can match this. But below him on the list, someone did even better: almost inevitably, it's Don Bradman, who scored 29 Test centuries but only 13 fifties (in 80 innings; Hayden had 184). Michael Clarke has so far scored 28 Test hundreds but 27 fifties, while Mohammad Azharuddin had 22 hundreds and 21 half-centuries. Michael Vaughan managed 18 of both.

Who's the only player to score half-centuries in the World Cup both for and against the same country? asked Sunit Kumar from the UAE
The answer to this neat little conundrum is Kepler Wessels, who scored 76 for Australia against Zimbabwe at Trent Bridge on his World Cup debut in 1983, then nine years later made 81 not out as South Africa, making their own World Cup debut, beat Australia in Sydney. The only others to play for two different countries in the World Cup are Anderson Cummins (West Indies and Canada), and Ed Joyce and Eoin Morgan for England and Ireland.

Is it true that Faoud Bacchus, who played in the World Cup final for West Indies, also played in the ICC Trophy for USA? asked Debapriya Chakraborty from India
Faoud Bacchus played 29 one-day internationals for West Indies, the last of them at Lord's in the famous 1983 World Cup final, which India won. He had been part of the squad that won the tournament in 1979, but didn't play a match that year. Bacchus, an elegant right-hand batsman from Guyana, is best remembered in Tests for a monumental 250 against India in Kanpur in 1978-79; this was his only century in 19 appearances, all of them, unusually, on different grounds. He was part of the "rebel" West Indies team that toured South Africa in 1983-84, and later played domestic cricket there. Later, he moved to the USA, and played for their national team too: he captained them in the ICC Trophy in Malaysia in 1996-97 - scoring 100 not out against Gibraltar - and was a member of the side that finished sixth in the 2001 tournament, in Canada. He had an impressive array of initials: I once heard a rumour that he had about a dozen forenames, but had settled on four (Sheik Faoud Ahamul Fasiel) to keep things simple. It would be nice to know if that's true!

Who played his only County Championship match in the game that clinched his side's first title for 28 years? asked Martin Wombourne from England
The man with this peculiar record is Irish seamer Mark Patterson, who made his debut for Surrey against Nottinghamshire at The Oval in September 1999. He took three early wickets, finishing with 3 for 25 as Nottinghamshire were bowled out for 115: Surrey went on to win inside two days, to secure their first title since 1971. He didn't play in the remaining two matches of that season, and left the staff at the end of the year. He had played one previous first-class game for Surrey, against South Africa A in 1996, taking 6 for 80 - including Herschelle Gibbs, Lance Klusener and Meyrick Pringle - in the first innings. Patterson represented Ireland in the ICC Trophy in 1996-97 and 2001, and later played for Bedfordshire.

I recently heard a rumour that Don Bradman's first first-class innings abroad was against an invitational XI in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) on the way to England. Is this true? asked Don Henadeera from Sri Lanka
Well, it wasn't a first-class match, but Don Bradman's first game outside Australia did indeed come in Sri Lanka, when the boat taking the Australian team to England stopped off there in April 1930. Bradman made 40 as the Australians collected 233 in their match at the Colombo Cricket Club against Ceylon, who replied with 52 for 1. Something similar happened in 1948: Bradman made 20 that time in another one-day game at the CCC. The Don actually never played first-class cricket anywhere other than Australia and Britain, although he did go on a minor tour of North America in 1932.