Was Ben Duckett's hundred the fastest for England in Tests against India?

Was Ben Duckett's century in Rajkot the fastest for England in a Test against India? asked Glenn Daniels from England
Ben Duckett reached three figures in Rajkot in just 88 balls. There are only seven hundreds for England known to have been faster than that, and none of them came against India.

Of England's faster hundreds overall, two of them - both in 86 balls - were by Ian Botham against Australia in 1981. England's quickest of all remains 76 balls, by Gilbert Jessop in a famous innings at The Oval in 1902.

Duckett reached his century in Rajkot from the fifth ball of the 26th over, the earliest in any England innings, beating Crawley in Rawalpindi, where he reached three figures from the last ball of the 29th over. The earliest any batter has reached 100 in a Test innings is 19.4 overs, by David Warner for Australia against India in Perth in 2011-12. (There are several Tests for which we lack ball-by-ball details, but it seems unlikely this one will have been bettered.)

The others are all by Duckett's fellow exponents of Bazball: Jonny Bairstow (77 balls against New Zealand at Trent Bridge in 2022), Harry Brook (80 vs Pakistan in Rawalpindi in 2022-23), Ben Stokes (85 vs New Zealand at Lord's in 2015) and Zak Crawley (86 in the same innings as Brook, against Pakistan in Rawalpindi in 2022-23).

England's previous-fastest hundred against India was by Graham Gooch, in 95 balls at Lord's in 1990 (this was in the second innings, after his monumental 333 in the first). Mohammad Azharuddin also made an 88-ball century in that Lord's game, but the fastest-known for either side in England-India Tests to date came in 86, by Kapil Dev in Kanpur in 1981-82 . For a list of the fastest Test centuries by balls, click here. There are many Test matches for which we do not have full balls-faced details.

With Ben Stokes playing his 100th Test match, I wondered who was the fastest (and slowest) to reach a century of caps? asked Mark Illingworth from England
Ben Stokes became the 16th England player to appear in 100 Tests when he took the field for last week's match against India in Rajkot. It took him just over ten years, from his debut against Australia in Adelaide in December 2013.

The fastest to 100 Test caps in terms of time is Alastair Cook, in around seven years and nine months from his debut in Nagpur in March 2006 . It's a measure of how often England play these days that they provide the five fastest to 100 caps: Cook, Joe Root (December 2012 to February 2021), Andrew Strauss (May 2004 to August 2012), Kevin Pietersen (July 2005 to November 2013) and Stuart Broad (December 2007 to November 2016). The fastest non-Englishman is Australia's Mark Waugh, in just under nine years (January 25, 1991, to January 2, 2000).

Cook's Essex guru Graham Gooch took the longest to get to 100 - about 17.5 years from July 1975 to January 1993. Clive Lloyd and Geoff Boycott also took more than 17 years. Boycott was the oldest to reach 100 caps - he was around three months short of his 41st birthday in the Ashes Test at Lord's in 1981. And Cook was the youngest - he was a fortnight shy of his 29th birthday when he played his 100th Test in December 2013, breaking a record previously held by Sachin Tendulkar (29 in 2002).

In the second Test at Seddon Park, the very first ball of the match was bowled by one captain to the other. How often has this happened? asked Keith Martin from New Zealand
You're right that the opening delivery of the second Test in Hamilton last week was bowled by New Zealand's Tim Southee to his rival captain, South Africa's Neil Brand. This was the first such instance since 2002-03, when Shaun Pollock, of South Africa sent down the first ball in Centurion to Sri Lanka's skipper Marvan Atapattu.

There had been only nine cases before that, five of them involving Imran Khan for Pakistan against India: on three occasions (all in 1982-83) he bowled the first ball to Sunil Gavaskar, and twice in 1989-90 to one of Gavaskar's successors, Kris Srikkanth.

It seems to be something of a Pakistan specialty, as Wasim Akram did it twice (to Mark Taylor of Australia in Brisbane in 1995-96, and Mike Atherton of England at The Oval in 1996), while back in 1958-59 Fazal Mahmood bowled the first ball of a Test in Lahore to West Indies' Gerry Alexander.

The first such instance was almost 100 years ago, at Lord's in June 1924, when Arthur Gilligan of England bowled the first ball of the match to South Africa's Herbie Taylor.

Alex Carey took eight catches in a Marsh Cup tie the other day. Was this a record for a one-day game? asked Kelvin Nickson from Australia
Test wicketkeeper Alex Carey took eight catches in South Australia's match against Queensland in Adelaide last week. This equalled the List A record, set by Somerset's Derek Taylor against Combined Universities in Taunton in 1982, and matched by Jamie Pipe for Worcestershire vs Hertfordshire in Hertford in 2001.

There are two other instances of a wicketkeeper making eight dismissals in a List A match, with some stumpings involved. The former South African keeper Steve Palframan collected five catches and three stumpings for Boland against Easterns in Paarl in 1997-98, and Peter Nevill had six and two for New South Wales against a Cricket Australia XI at Hurstville Oval in Sydney in 2017-18.

The men's ODI record is six dismissals in an innings, which has happened on 16 occasions - six of them by Adam Gilchrist. There are also four cases of six in women's ODIs.

Has anyone taken more wickets on debut for New Zealand than Will O'Rourke? asked Nick Templeton from Scotland
The Surrey-born seamer Will O'Rourke finished with 9 for 93 in his first Test, against South Africa in Hamilton last week. This turns out to be the best match return for a New Zealand debutant, beating the 8 for 188 of offspinner Mark Craig, against West Indies in Kingston in 2014.

Paul Wiseman (1997-98), Colin de Grandhomme (2016-17), Ajaz Patel (2018-19) and Will Somerville (in the next Test in 2018-19) all took seven wickets in their first Test.

With 5 for 34 in Hamilton, O'Rourke is one of only ten men to take five wickets in an innings on Test debut for New Zealand. Only four of them achieved the feat before 2007: those that have done it since include O'Rourke's current captain Tim Southee, with 5 for 55 against England in Napier in 2007-08, and de Grandhomme, whose 6 for 41 against Pakistan in Christchurch in 2016-17 remain New Zealand's best innings figures on debut.