Lowest innings with no ducks, and the most boring of all

I noticed that in Bangladesh's innings of 89 against Sri Lanka recently none of the batsmen failed to score. Is this the lowest Test total without a duck? asked Brett Scarffe from Australia

Bangladesh's score of 89 in the first Test against Sri Lanka in Colombo is not the lowest Test total without a duck © AFP

Rather surprisingly, Bangladesh's performance in the first Test in Colombo a couple of weeks ago was not the lowest Test innings not to feature a duck: it actually comes in third on that particular list, behind two instances by Australia. At Adelaide in 1951-52 they were shot out for 82 by West Indies, with Arthur Morris making the lowest score of 1, but even that isn't quite the record: in 1949-50, South Africa bowled Australia out for 75 at Durban. Colin McCool scored 1, and five separate batsmen made 2 (and another one 2 not out). There was a happy ending for the Aussies, though: they trailed by 236 on the first innings, but ended up winning by five wickets.

I saw from the recent column about the lowest Test totals since 1945 that New Zealand's record-low 26 occupied 27 overs: is this the only case of a completed Test innings being scored at less than one run per over? asked Graham Turner

New Zealand's 26 in 1954-55 is the only instance of this happening in a completed (all-out) innings. But there have been two other notable innings where the runs scored lagged behind the overs bowled. In the final Test at The Oval in 1956, Australia limped to 27 for 5 in their second innings, in 38.1 overs. That was less than a year after arguably the most boring innings in Test history, when New Zealand crawled to 69 for 6 in 90 overs (0.76 runs per over) to force a draw against Pakistan at Dacca in 1955-56: slow left-armer Shujauddin had bowling figures of 9-8-1-0.

After his century at Headingley, Michael Vaughan has now scored at least one hundred at each regular England Test ground (excluding Chester-le-Street). Which other England players have achieved this (I think Ian Botham was one)? asked Neil Kuca

You're right, both Michael Vaughan and Ian Botham have done this (Botham only played on six grounds, and made at least one century at each of them). The other England players to score Test centuries on six different home grounds are Ken Barrington, Geoff Boycott, Graham Gooch and Marcus Trescothick (who has scored one at Chester-le-Street, but not at Trent Bridge). The overall record is held by Sachin Tendulkar, who has played Tests on 12 different grounds in India and scored centuries on nine of them. Dilip Vengsarkar, who also played on 12 different Indian grounds, managed eight.

I know that Mohammad Yousuf now holds the world record for most Test runs in a calendar year. But who holds the record for most wickets in a year? asked Uzair Khan

The record-holder here is Australia's Shane Warne, who took 96 Test wickets during 2005, 40 of them during the Ashes series in England. Muttiah Muralitharan ran him close last year, with 90 wickets in only 11 Tests. For a full list of bowlers who have taken 50 or more Test wickets in a calendar year, click here.

I see that Malinda Warnapura of Sri Lanka was dismissed by the only ball he faced on his Test debut, which put his selection for the second Test in doubt. How many people have been dismissed by the only ball of their Test career? asked Adrian Rennie from Bath

Well, first of all Malinda Warnapura did survive to the second Test against Bangladesh, after falling to the only ball he received in the first Test, and made 82, so he escaped membership of this unfortunate club. As far as I can see (early records are not always complete) there are four men who were dismissed by the only ball of their Test careers: Joseph McMaster, for England v South Africa at Cape Town in 1888-89 (this was actually the only ball he faced in his entire first-class career); Australia's Roy Park, against England at Melbourne in 1920-21 (the story goes that his wife dropped her knitting at the vital moment, and missed his entire Test career); another Australian, slow left-armer Bill Hunt, against South Africa at Adelaide in 1931-32; and South Africa's Gerald Bond, against England at Johannesburg in 1938-39.

Vernon Philander (right) had a memorable birthday when he took 4 for 12 against Ireland at Belfast on his ODI debut © Getty Images

Last month in Ireland Vernon Philander made his ODI debut on his birthday. How many other players have done this? asked Prasad Sathaye from India

Vernon Philander was the 11th player to make his one-day international debut on his birthday, but the first for South Africa, and the first since Bangladesh's Morshed Ali Khan in 1997-98. The others were Chris Lewis, Graeme Hick and Ian Salisbury of England, Australia's Murray Bennett, the New Zealanders Bevan Congdon and Martin Snedden, Grant Paterson of Zimbabwe, Pakistan's Asif Mujtaba, and Gursharan Singh of India. There are also ten players who made their Test debut on their birthday: Francis Ford, Fred Tate, Arthur Gilligan and Jack Iddon of England, Bransby Cooper of Australia, Dattu Phadkar and Sunil Joshi of India, and a trio of West Indians in Ben Sealey, Ridley Jacobs and Ricardo Powell.