What's the most runs conceded by a bowler taking seven or more wickets in a first-class innings?

Tsepo Ndwandwa took 7 for 206 in an A-team Test the other day. What's the highest amount of runs conceded when taking seven - and eight or nine or ten - wickets in a first-class innings? asked Kieran Nash from England
The South Africa A slow left-armer Tsepo Ndwandwa took seven wickets against New Zealand A in Potchefstroom last week - but they cost him 206 runs, in a total of 607 for 7 declared. Eight bowlers have conceded more while taking seven in an innings: the most expensive was offspinner Pankaj Thakur's 7 for 254 for Haryana against Bombay (718) in Faridabad in 1994. By coincidence, the Test record is also held by a Haryana player: Kapil Dev collected 7 for 220 for India against Pakistan (652) in Faisalabad in 1983.

George Giffen holds the first-class record for the most expensive eight-for, conceding no fewer than 287 runs for South Australia in New South Wales' total of 807 in Adelaide in 1899, when he was 40. Giffen shared the new ball with another 40-year-old, Test fast bowler Ernie Jones, who finished with 1 for 210. Another Australian holds the Test record: offspinner Jason Krejza took 8 for 215 on debut against India in Nagpur in 2008.

The South Australia legspinner Clarrie Grimmett took 9 for 180 - the most expensive nine-for in first-class cricket - against Queensland in Adelaide in 1934. The Test record is 9 for 129, by Keshav Maharaj for South Africa vs Sri Lanka in Colombo in 2018.

The most runs conceded while taking all ten wickets in first-class cricket is 175, by the England offspinner Eddie Hemmings for an International XI against a West Indies XI in Kingston in 1982. Hemmings wasn't sure this was a first-class game: "The ten-wicket haul had little significance at the time; after all we had only been playing a Festival game. It was only months later, back in England during the 1983 season, that I learned that the match had been granted first-class status and that my achievement would enter the record books."

Of the three bowlers who have taken all ten in a Test innings, New Zealand's slow left-armer Ajaz Patel conceded the most runs - 119, against India in Mumbai in 2021.

I was looking at the scores of England's tour of South Africa in 1905-06, and noticed there was a big gap of slightly more than two months between the first and second Tests. Was this the longest gap between Tests in a series, and what was the reason for it? asked Richard Treacy from Australia
England's 1905-06 tour of South Africa certainly had a strange itinerary. There were indeed more than two months between the first Test (at the old Wanderers ground in Johannesburg from January 2-4) and the second, also in Jo'burg (March 6-8). The reason was a crowded and lopsided itinerary: only the four first-class matches are shown on our series page (linked above), but there were also nine other games, many against odds (teams of more than 11), all around the country.

Once the team returned to Johannesburg, the tour concluded with the last four Tests, broken up only by a non-first-class game in Bloemfontein against a 15-man side from Orange Free State. Those accustomed to today's whistle-stop tours with few, if any, non-internationals will probably be shocked by the summary of Pelham Warner, England's captain: "A very heavy programme was arranged. Between December 2 and April 2 we played 26 matches - which meant 66 days' cricket - and travelled 5348 miles by railway, in addition to a sea journey between Durban and East London. No fewer than 22 nights were spent in the train… Exactly half the matches were against odds, varying from 22 to 15 men, who, however, fielded 13, and in one case 11."

Surprisingly, though, there have been two longer mid-series gaps between Test. The longest is ten months, between India's fourth Test in England at The Oval in September 2021, and the fifth, which was postponed after Covid problems and rearranged for the following July at Edgbaston.

The other longer gap came during England's tour of the subcontinent in 1961-62. Ted Dexter's side started with a Test against Pakistan in Lahore in October, but then played a full five-Test series in India before returning after nearly three months for two more Tests in Pakistan, in Dacca (January 19-24) and in Karachi (February 2-7).

There was a gap of 50 days between the second and third Tests of the 1891-92 Ashes series, during which time the tourists had nine matches, only two of them first-class. During this gap an entirely different England team played a match against South Africa, now recognised as a Test, in Cape Town (March 19-22).

I heard on the commentary that Ravi Bopara was one of two people who have played in every season of the English T20 competition. Who's the other one? Is it James Anderson? asked Bill Lawson from England
You're right that Ravi Bopara has played in all 23 seasons of the English T20 competition (now the Blast) since the first in 2003. Now 40, Bopara hit 105 not out from 46 balls for Northamptonshire in the quarter-final against Surrey at The Oval earlier this month.

Mainly thanks to international duties, Jimmy Anderson has only appeared in nine domestic T20 seasons - his ten matches this year were his first since 2014. The other 23-season man is Samit Patel, also 40, who's now playing for Derbyshire after many seasons with Nottinghamshire. Joe Denly has featured in 21 seasons, and Gareth Batty, Rikki Clarke, Steven Croft, James Hildreth and Luke Wright in 19.

Is there anyone who's played just one Test, one ODI and one T20 international? And how many have played Tests and T20s but not ODIs? asked Kaustubh from India
The only player who fits the bill here at the moment is the wonderfully named Nonkhululeko Peaceful Thabethe, whose three appearances for South Africa's women all came in India in 2014.

There are five men who have played just four international matches, including one in all three formats: the Indian pair of Naman Ojha (one Test, one ODI and two T20Is) and Karn Sharma (1-2-1), England's Scott Borthwick (1-2-1), Charlton Tshuma of Zimbabwe (1-2-1) and Afghanistan's Mohammad Saleem (1-2-1),

There are currently 23 men and nine women who appeared in one Test and one ODI, about half of them dating from before the inaugural T20 international in Auckland in February 2005.

And as I write there are 28 men and one woman (England's Kirstie Gordon) who have played Tests and T20Is, but no ODIs. Some are current players who may yet break their 50-over duck, such as Lhuan-dre Pretorius (South Africa), Bangladesh's Mahmudul Hasan and the Indians Dhruv Jurel, Devdutt Padikkal and Nitish Kumar Reddy.

Who has scored the most successive half-centuries in ODIs? asked Muhammad Azfar from England
The record for consecutive 50-plus scores in one-day internationals is nine, by Pakistan's Javed Miandad during 1987. This run included two hundreds. Another Pakistani is second: Imam-ul-Haq made seven 50-plus scores in a row in 2021 and 2022.

There are ten more men who managed six consecutive ODI half-centuries.

In women's ODIs, Mithali Raj of India had seven consecutive 50-plus scores in 2017, while a distinguished trio in Lindsay Reeler (Australia), Charlotte Edwards (England) and Ellyse Perry (Australia) all had runs of six.