Who has scored the most Test runs in a month?

I know that Mohammad Yousuf scored the most Test runs in a calendar year. But who scored the most in a calendar month? asked Nicholas Hayes from England
Rather neatly, the answer is also Mohammad Yousuf. In the course of his record-breaking year of 2006 - in which he scored 1788 runs in Tests - Yousuf amassed 665 runs in three Tests against West Indies in November, hitting 192 in Lahore, 56 and 191 in Multan, and 102 and 124 in Karachi.

Next comes Graham Gooch, with 640 runs in July 1990 - 154 and 30 against New Zealand at Edgbaston, and 333 and 123 against India at Lord's. Ricky Ponting, with 634 in December 2003, is the only other man to score more than 600 Test runs in a calendar month.

The record for one-day internationals is held by Zimbabwe's Hamilton Masakadza, with 595 in October 2009, in five matches against Kenya and three against Bangladesh. Sachin Tendulkar comes next, 564 in April 1998.

Four batsmen scored centuries when India played Sri Lanka in Nagpur last November. Was this a record? asked Rajesh Rajasekhera from India
That performance against Sri Lanka in Nagpur - when Murali Vijay (128), Cheteshwar Pujara (143), Virat Kohli (213) and Rohit Sharma (102 not out) all reached three figures - was the third time India had had four centurions in the same Test innings. It happened first against Bangladesh in Mirpur in May 2007, thanks to Dinesh Karthik (129), Wasim Jaffer (138 retired ill), Rahul Dravid (129) and Sachin Tendulkar (122 not out), and was repeated against South Africa in Kolkata in 2009-10, by Virender Sehwag (165), Sachin Tendulkar (106), VVS Laxman (143 not out) and MS Dhoni (132 not out).

There are 20 further instances of four centuries in the same Test innings by other teams, but there have been two cases of five: by Australia against West Indies in Kingston in 1954-55, and by Pakistan v Bangladesh in Multan in 2001. For the full list, click here.

Bevan Congdon, who has just died, once scored 176 and 175 in successive innings against England. Has anyone else done this? asked George Madden from England
Those defiant knocks by New Zealand's captain Bevan Congdon came in successive innings against England in 1973 - 176 at Trent Bridge and 175 at Lord's. There are 15 other instances of batsmen having successive innings of 175 or more in Tests; seven of those involved consecutive double-centuries.

The only others to do it against England were Don Bradman (304 and 244) and Bill Ponsford (181 and 266) in the same two innings at Headingley and The Oval in 1934, Bradman again in 1946-47 (187 in Brisbane and 234 in Sydney), Arthur Morris in 1948 (182 at Headingley and 196 at The Oval, in the innings in which Bradman ended his Test career with a duck), and - the only non-Australian - Sri Lanka's Mahela Jayawardene in 2007-08 (195 in Colombo and 213 not out in Galle).

Vinod Kambli scored 224 in only his third Test, for India against England in Mumbai in 1992-93, and added 227 in his next innings, against Zimbabwe in Delhi a few weeks later. The other batsmen to hit successive scores of 175 or more in Tests are Wally Hammond (1928-29 and 1932-33), Bill Edrich (1947), Mike Denness (1974-75), Zaheer Abbas (1982-83), Kumar Sangakkara (2007), Michael Clarke (2012-13), Brendon McCullum (2014-15) and Virat Kohli (2017-18).

How many players have scored a hundred in their 100th one-day international, as Shikhar Dhawan did at Johannesburg? asked Ibrahim Kamara from Kenya
Shikhar Dhawan's 109 against South Africa at the Wanderers the other day made him the ninth batsman to score a century in his 100th one-day-international. The first to do it was the West Indian opener Gordon Greenidge, with an undefeated 102 against Pakistan in Sharjah in 1988-89, and he was followed by Chris Cairns (1998-99), Mohammad Yousuf (2001-02), Kumar Sangakkara (2003-04), Chris Gayle (2004), Marcus Trescothick (2005), Ramnaresh Sarwan (2006) and, most recently, David Warner (with 124 for Australia v India in Bangalore in September 2017).

There were three scores of 150 or more in the first Test between Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Has there ever been more in a single Test? asked Savo Ceprnich from South Africa
That recent match in Chittagong, which featured innings of 176 from Mominul Haque, 196 from Kusal Mendis and 173 from Dhananjaya de Silva, turns out to be the 33rd Test match to contain three scores of 150 or more. But there is just one instance of four: in Karachi in 2008-09, Mahela Jayawardene scored 240 and Thilan Samaraweera 231 for Sri Lanka, then Younis Khan countered with 313 and Kamran Akmal 158 not out for Pakistan.