Big opening stands, everyone bowled, and The Don's stumping

When the South African openers broke the Test record at Chittagong, there was mention of a stand involving four people that nearly broke the old record too. What happened in that game? asked Amit Bhasin from Delhi

The match being referred to there was the second Test between India and Bangladesh in Mirpur in May 2007. Dinesh Karthik and Wasim Jaffer put on 175 before Karthik retired suffering from cramp and dehydration, then Jaffer and Rahul Dravid put on 106 more before Jaffer cramped up too. Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar then added a further 127 before a wicket finally fell. Most statisticians (including Cricinfo's) count this as three separate partnerships, the first two of them unfinished, but it probably saved a lot of arguments that the first wicket finally went down at 408, just short of the old record of 413, set by India's Vinoo Mankad and Pankaj Roy against New Zealand in Madras in 1955-56. As you mention, the first-wicket record finally fell last week, when Neil McKenzie and Graeme Smith put on 415 for South Africa against Bangladesh at Chittagong.

Both South Africa's openers scored double-centuries last week. Has this ever happened before in a Test? asked Kamal Sachdeva

The achievement by Neil McKenzie and Graeme Smith, during that world-record opening stand against Bangladesh at Chittagong, was only the second time in Test history that both openers have made a double-century in the same innings. The previous occasion was in Bridgetown in 1964-65, when Bill Lawry scored 210 and Bob Simpson 201 for Australia against West Indies (their opening stand was worth 382). There have been 11 other occasions when both openers passed 150 in the same Test innings.

Has a team ever literally been bowled out - i.e. all ten men were dismissed by being bowled? asked Luke Brooksby

It's never quite happened in a Test, when the record for an innings is nine men being out bowled. This happened to South Africa in their second-ever Test, against England in Cape Town in 1888-89 (the other man was run out). The second occasion was just over a year later, when nine Australians were bowled as England won a close-fought match at The Oval in 1890 (the other man that time was caught). It has happened a few times in first-class cricket: one of the earliest instances came at Lord's in 1850, when John Wisden, the founder of the famous Almanack, took all ten wickets for the North against the South and all ten were bowled - a unique feat.

Is South Africa's Jimmy Cook the only batsman to have been dismissed by the very first ball of his debut Test match? asked Santosh from India

This unfortunate fate befell South Africa's Jimmy Cook when he was out to the first ball of the match - also the first ball of his long-delayed Test career - against India in Durban in 1992-93. That was the first time a debutant had fallen to the first ball of a Test, but it has happened once more since: in 2000-01, West Indies' Leon Garrick fell to the first ball of the fifth Test against South Africa at Kingston. Garrick, who made 27 in the second innings, never played another Test. For a full list of batsmen who have been dismissed by the first ball of a Test, click here.

Which cricketer is (or was) known as "The Phantom"? asked Chris Bannerman from Edinburgh

This is Bill Lawry, the prolific Australian opener of the 1960s who is now an enthusiastic TV commentator. Lawry acquired his unusual nickname because of a love of the American comic-strip "The Phantom". Early in his career a team-mate found some of the comics in Lawry's cricket bag, and the name stuck.

Don Bradman had a first-class stumping to his name. Did he ever keep wicket or was this a freak dismissal? asked Pete from Australia

Don Bradman did indeed manage a stumping in a first-class match. It came for South Australia against his former team New South Wales in Sydney in 1937-38, when the regular wicketkeeper Charlie Walker (who was a surprise choice for the England tour later in 1938) injured a finger. Bradman kept wicket in both innings, stumping his Test team-mate Bill O'Reilly in the first and taking three catches in the second. Wisden reported that Bradman did "quite well" in the first innings, while in the second it mentions "some first-rate wicketkeeping by Bradman". One imagines The Don rather enjoyed dismissing O'Reilly, with whom he had long had an antagonistic relationship.