Wicket-taking oldies, and English centurions

Bangladesh's Abdur Razzak has so far played against 19 different teams in international cricket. Is this a record? asked Nabil Abrar from Bangladesh
That's a good spot, as Abdur Razzak shares the record of playing against 19 different national teams in official internationals with two of his team-mates, Mushfiqur Rahim and Tamim Iqbal. However, if you include composite teams, there's a different leader: Virender Sehwag played against 20 different sides - 18 national teams plus Africa and the World XI. In this calculation Razzak, Mushfiqur and Tamim are joined on 19 by another Bangladeshi, Mashrafe bin Mortaza (he played for Asia against the Africa XI but not yet against Hong Kong, which his colleagues have).

Following on from last week's question about hit-wickets, is Bill Ponsford's 266 the highest Test score to end that way? And what's the record for ODIs? asked Gerry Houseman from England
Bill Ponsford's 266 in his final Test match at The Oval in 1934 - when he shared a then-record stand of 451 with Don Bradman (244) - is indeed the highest score to be ended by such a dismissal, which came at the hands of the England fast bowler Gubby Allen. Percy Fender describes the incident well in his superb tour book Kissing the Rod: "Allen suddenly bowled a real bumper to Ponsford. That batsman was so surprised, for Allen bowled very few such balls throughout, that he ducked away rather more precipitately than usual, and in the excitement he hit his wicket with his bat as the ball passed to the 'keeper."

Eleven other Test centuries (including another one by Ponsford, in the previous match) ended in a hit-wicket dismissal. Only one of them was a double - Faoud Bacchus' 250 for West Indies against India in Kanpur in 1978-79.

The highest innings in one-day internationals that was terminated by a hit-wicket dismissal is a recent one - Faf du Plessis of South Africa was out this way for 126 against Australia in Harare earlier this month. Virat Kohli, after his 107 against England in Cardiff in 2011, is the only other ODI centurion to be out in this way.

I know that Sanath Jayasuriya is the oldest batsman to score an ODI hundred. But he also took five wickets when he was 35 - is he the oldest to do this too? asked Arnold de Silva from Sri Lanka
Sanath Jayasuriya, who was nearly 40 when he made 107 for Sri Lanka against India in Dambulla in January 2009, was 35 years 108 days old when he took 5 for 17 against Pakistan in Lahore late in 2004. There are ten instances of older bowlers taking a five-for in one-day internationals, two of them by Muttiah Muralitharan (in 2008, when he was 36). The oldest bowler to take five wickets in any ODI is Canada's slow left-armer Sunil Dhaniram, who was aged 39 years 256 days when he claimed 5 for 32 against Bermuda in King City in 2008. The oldest bowler from a Test-playing nation is Viv Richards, 37 years 230 days old when he took 6 for 41 against India in the Nehru Cup at Delhi in October 1989. Richard Hadlee was 12 days younger when he claimed 5 for 38 for New Zealand against Pakistan in Dunedin in February 1989.

Which cricketer called his autobiography Flying Stumps? asked Chris Leigh from England
I was confident that the answer to this one was Brian Statham - only to find, when I had a look at the former Lancashire and England fast bowler's 1961 book, that it was actually called Flying Bails. It's just possible that Statham had to change the title because, seven years previously, the same publishing company (Stanley Paul) had brought out the life story of his great Australian rival Ray Lindwall - which was indeed called Flying Stumps.

Misbah-ul-Haq is still playing in ODIs despite being 40. Is he near the top of the list of oldest players? asked Pervez Arshad from Pakistan
Misbah-ul-Haq, who celebrated his 40th birthday in May, is actually quite a long way down this particular list at the moment, although of course he is likely to climb up it every time he plays a match from now on. Three players older than him - Khurram Khan of the UAE, Steve Tikolo of Kenya and Kenya's Lameck Onyango - have played ODIs this year. The oldest man ever to appear in a one-day international was the Barbados-born Dutchman Nolan Clarke, who was 47 during the 1996 World Cup, while the oldest from a Test-playing nation remains 45-year-old John Traicos, for Zimbabwe in 1992-93.

In the list of Test players with 30 or more Test centuries, there are no English batsmen. What's the highest number of centuries by an Englishman? asked John van Genderen from the Netherlands
It is slightly odd that there are no Englishmen in the upper reaches of this particular list. For some years England's century-makers were headed by three batsmen with 22: Wally Hammond, Colin Cowdrey and Geoff Boycott. When Hammond made his 22nd Test hundred in 1939, no one from anywhere had scored more: Don Bradman had 21 at the time, but would extend that to 29 after the war. Alastair Cook and Kevin Pietersen both equalled the English record in the same innings against India in Mumbai in November 2012, with Cook annexing the record for himself with 190 in the next match in Kolkata. Pietersen finished (presumably) with 23 Test centuries, but Cook currently has 25 - although he has not scored one now since his 130 against New Zealand at Headingley in May 2013, some 17 Tests and 31 innings ago.