Two tons in low totals, and the most runs when captain

Was New Zealand's 279 in the first innings of the first Test against India the lowest Test total to include two individual centuries? asked Gulu Ezekiel from India, and several others

New Zealand's 279 against India in Hamilton last week was indeed the lowest completed Test innings to include two individual hundreds (Jesse Ryder's 102 and Daniel Vettori's 118). The previous record for a completed innings was 284, by Australia against West Indies in Brisbane in 1968-69, when Bill Lawry made 105 and Ian Chappell 117, and the next-best score was 17. There have been five smaller totals to include two centuries where not all the batsmen were dismissed, the lowest of all being West Indies' 250 for 0 against Australia in Georgetown in 1983-84, when Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes both made undefeated centuries.

I would like to know which player holds the distinction of having scored the most runs in Tests while captain? asked Rohit Bhutoria from India

The current leader in this table is Australia's Allan Border, with 6623 runs in 93 Tests as captain. But coming up fast is South Africa's Graeme Smith, who has currently made 5736 runs in 69 Tests as captain (this includes 12 runs while captaining the World XI against Australia in the Super Series Test in Sydney in 2005-06). Ricky Ponting currently has 5139 runs as captain, not far behind the third- and fourth-placed men, Clive Lloyd of West Indies (5233 runs in 74 matches) and Stephen Fleming (5156 in 80). You can generate this list yourself through Cricinfo's Statsguru.

Who called his autobiography On Top Down Under? Was it Steve Waugh? asked Kaushik from Dubai

Actually On Top Down Under wasn't an autobiography, it was a splendid collection of mini-biographies of Australia's cricket captains. The original was compiled by the Australian journalist Ray Robinson, and was published in 1975, while an updated edition, with additional chapters by Gideon Haigh (Ray Robinson died in 1982), came out in 1993. Steve Waugh's massive autobiography, which was published in 2005 and weighed in at 816 pages, was called Out Of My Comfort Zone.

Who is the oldest person to play in a Twenty20 international? asked Shakoor Khan from Karachi

You would probably win a lot of money if you got this right in a quiz: the answer is Sunil Dhaniram, who was four days short of his 40th birthday when he captained Canada against Zimbabwe in King City in October 2008. In second place is Sri Lanka's Sanath Jayasuriya, who was 39 years 225 days old at the time of his most recent Twenty20 international - against India in Colombo in February. Two more 38-year-old Canadians - Sanjayan Thuraisingam and John Davison - are in third and fourth places on this particular list.

I noticed that in the innings after he made 365 not out, Garry Sobers scored 125. He thus made 490 runs before he was dismissed - is this a record? asked Bertrand James from Barbados

That sequence by Garry Sobers for West Indies against Pakistan in 1957-58 - 365 not out in Kingston and 125 in Georgetown - is actually second on this particular list. The leader, with 497 Test runs between dismissals, is India's Sachin Tendulkar. He made 241 not out and 60 not out against Australia in Sydney in 2003-04, and later that season made 194 not out against Pakistan in Multan, before falling for 2 in the next Test, in Lahore. Sri Lanka's Kumar Sangakkara threatened the record in 2007 - he scored 200 not out and 222 not out in successive innings against Bangladesh in July, then made 57 against Australia in Hobart in November, a total of 479 runs between dismissals.

You mentioned in last week's column that Brian Lara had scored hundreds against all the other nine Test teams. Which ones did he not score double-centuries against? asked Dwaine Cooke from Jamaica

Brian Lara's nine Test double-centuries (a number exceeded only by Don Bradman's 12) comprised three against Australia, two against England and Sri Lanka, and one each against Pakistan and South Africa. He therefore didn't reach 200 against Bangladesh (his highest score against them was 120), India (also 120), New Zealand (147) or Zimbabwe (191). In this respect Australia's Steve Waugh is the only man to have made a score of 150 or more against nine different opponents.