West Indies' heaviest thrashings, and the man who got out so he could eat

Where does West Indies' collapse at Edgbaston rank in their heaviest Test defeats? asked Stephen Drury from England

West Indies have suffered only five heavier defeats than their innings-and-209-run shellacking by England in the day-night Test at Edgbaston. Heaviest of all was England's win by an innings and 283 runs at Headingley in 2007, while England won by an innings and 237 at The Oval in 1957. South Africa beat West Indies by an innings and 220 runs in Centurion in 2014-15, while Australia won by an innings and 217 runs in Brisbane in 1930-31, and an innings and 212 in Hobart in 2015-16. West Indies' heaviest defeat by runs came in Sydney in 1968-69, when Australia won by 382.

West Indies lost 19 wickets on the third day at Edgbaston. Has any team ever lost all 20 on the same day? asked Surinder Naik from India
There have been three instances of a team losing all 20 wickets on the same day of a Test match. India subsided twice against England at Old Trafford in 1952, while Zimbabwe collapsed against New Zealand in Harare in August 2005, and again in Napier in 2011-12. There have also been three previous occasions when a team lost 19 wickets in a single day's play, all of them inflicted by England: against South Africa in Cape Town in 1888-89, and again at Old Trafford in 1912, and against Zimbabwe at Lord's in 2003. West Indies' previous worst day came at The Oval in 1933, when they lost 18 wickets, 11 of them to the Kent legspinner Charles "Father" Marriott, who was playing in his only Test.

Was Hardik Pandya the first Indian to hit seven sixes in a Test innings? asked Ricky Dooley from South Africa
Hardik Pandya's rapid maiden century against Sri Lanka in Pallekele last week did contain seven sixes, matching the efforts of Virender Sehwag during his 293 against Sri Lanka in Mumbai in 2009-10, and Harbhajan Singh (111 not out) against New Zealand in Hyderabad in 2010-11. But there has been one Indian Test innings with even more sixes: Navjot Singh Sidhu clouted eight in the course of his 124 against Sri Lanka in Lucknow in 1993-94. The overall Test record remains 12 sixes, by Wasim Akram during his unbeaten 257 for Pakistan against Zimbabwe in Sheikhupura in 1996-97.

I remember hearing a story about an English batsman who got out deliberately in a match as the interval times had changed and he wanted to eat. Who was this, and was it true? asked Gordon Armstrong from England
The batsman usually associated with this story is George Gunn, the Nottinghamshire opener who had a long career either side of the First World War. In his day, play usually started at 11.30, and the players stopped for lunch at 1.30. But the odd match started at 12, with lunch at 2.00. The story goes that in one of these games, surprised that play was still going on, Gunn got out deliberately, tucked his bat under his arm, and announced that "George Gunn lunches at 1.30." I don't know whether the story has ever been tied down to a particular match, but it's such a persistent tale that I expect it really did happen!

Gunn had a peculiar England career, which started when he scored a century in his first Test, in Sydney in 1907-08. He wasn't part of the original squad, but was spending the winter in Australia for health reasons and got a late call. He was an official member of the next touring team down under, in 1911-12, but after that his Test career seemed to be over: another story about him has it that he missed a third Ashes tour because he never opened the invitation letter - he put his Notts blazer on for a new season and discovered the envelope in the pocket. But, early in 1930, Gunn did win four more Test caps, during England's first official tour of the West Indies, even though he was 50 by then (and he wasn't even the oldest member of the team: Wilfred Rhodes was 52). He played on for so long that he appeared in county cricket alongside his son - also George - and they once scored centuries in the same innings.

Picking up from last week's question about the first man to play 100 ODIs, who was the first to appear in 50 Tests? And 75, and 100, and so on? asked Michael Dixon from England
The first man to chalk up a half-century of Test appearances was the Australian Syd Gregory, who made his debut in 1890 and reached 50 caps in 1909, at which point his countrymen Monty Noble had played 41 Tests and Clem Hill 39. The first to 75 was England's Wally Hammond, in 1939; Frank Woolley was second at the time, with 64.

Colin Cowdrey was famously the first man to reach 100 Test caps, celebrating with a century for England against Australia at Edgbaston in 1968; his Kent team-mate Godfrey Evans was next at the time, with 91 (the top 11 at that time were all from England, the sole interloper being Neil Harvey, with 79 for Australia).

Sunil Gavaskar passed Cowdrey in July 1986, and in March the following year was the first to 125; Allan Border stretched the record to 150 in December 1993. Sachin Tendulkar reached 175 in December 2010, and became the first - and only - man to play in 200 Test matches in his final game, against West Indies in Mumbai in November 2013. In joint second place - then and now - are the Australian pair of Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting, who both won 168 caps.