Australia were 124 for 6 at Durban, but recovered to 390. Has anyone made more runs from a lower score after the sixth wicket went down? asked Brooke Davidson from Australia
Thanks mainly to Matt Renshaw (with an honourable mention for Nathan Lyon), Australia reached a lofty 390 in the first Test against South Africa in Durban last week after being in some strife at 124 for 6 halfway through the first day.
There are only five other Test innings in which the sixth wicket went down at 124 or lower where the final total was higher than Australia's 390. In one of those, New Zealand made it to 391 after being 85 for 6 against India in Auckland in 1990. The highest total involved was Pakistan's 561 - from 111 for 6 - against New Zealand in Lahore in 1955.
The other better recoveries from six down were by Australia (119 for 6 to 489 against England in Adelaide in 1925) and England (102 for 6 to 446 against Pakistan at Lord's in 2010), while against England in Bridgetown in 2019, West Indies declined to 120 for 6 - but were rescued by an unbroken stand of 295 between Shane Dowrich (116 not out) and Jason Holder (202 not out), and declared at 415 for 6. They went on to win by 381 runs.
Matt Renshaw went almost ten years between Test hundreds. What's the longest such gap? asked Dipak Varma from India
Australia's Matt Renshaw made his second Test hundred in Durban last week, nine years and nine months after his first, 184 against Pakistan in Sydney in January 2017.
That's the fifth-longest such gap for Australia, behind Warwick Armstrong (nine years ten months between February 1911 and December 1920), Bob Simpson (almost ten years between December 1967 and December 1977), Charlie Macartney (almost ten years between March 1911 and February 1921), and the overall leader Warren Bardsley, who went almost 14 years between Test centuries in July 1912 and June 1926.
Bardsley's centuries were his fourth and fifth in Tests: the longest gap between a player's first two Test tons is almost 12 and a half years, by Mushtaq Ali of India between July 1936 and December 1948.
The others with longer gaps between Test centuries than Renshaw are Pakistan's Fawad Alam (between July 2009 and December 2020), Frank Woolley of England (February 1912 to February 1923), Sri Lanka's Upul Tharanga (March 2006 to October 2016), Vijay Merchant of India (July 1936 to August 1946), and Zimbabwe's Hamilton Masakadza (July 2001 to August 2011). For all these five the hundreds involved were their first and second in Tests.
Marnus Labuschagne scored 37 off 58 balls in both innings at Durban. Was this the highest such double? asked Phil Jackson from Australia
You're right that Australia's Marnus Labuschagne made 37 from 58 balls in both innings of the first Test against South Africa in Durban last week.
This appears to be the highest such double, beating twin innings of 29 from 62 balls by Syed Kirmani for India against Australia in Melbourne in 1978. There was a near miss in Pallekele in 2021, when Mushfiqur Rahim scored 40 off 62 balls and 40 off 63 for Bangladesh against Sri Lanka. Note that here are many early matches for which we don't have full details of balls faced.
The highest repeated score in a Test, ignoring the balls, is two innings of 105, by Duleep Mendis for Sri Lanka against India in Madras in 1982. Misbah-ul-Haq made 101 and 101 not out for Pakistan against Australia in Abu Dhabi late in 2014.
When Steven Finn took a hat-trick for England in the 2015 World Cup, he ended up with 5 for 71. Was this the most expensive five-for in ODIs? asked Chris Millington from England
That hat-trick by the England fast bowler Steven Finn> came from the last three balls of Australia's innings in a World Cup group game in Melbourne in 2015. Australia finished with 342 for 9, then bowled England out for 231, so Finn's hat-trick - only the fourth for England in one-day internationals, and their only one in the World Cup - counted for little.
Finn ended up with 5 for 71, which turns out to be England's second-most expensive five-for in ODIs, behind Adil Rashid's 5 for 85 against West Indies in Grenada in 2019. Rashid actually had 1 for 85 after 9.1 overs, then took four wickets in five balls to finish with five and clinch victory in a very high-scoring game.
Rashid tops the list of the most expensive five-wicket hauls for all countries in ODIs, ahead of Dilshan Madushanka's 5 for 80 for Sri Lanka against India in Mumbai during the 2023 World Cup. Finn lies in seventh place overall.
In last summer's second Test against New Zealand, Joe Root had the most caps, runs, wickets and catches of England's XI. Had this ever happened before? asked Rob Clow-Whitelegg from England
You're right that in the second Test against New Zealand at The Oval in June, when England's side showed several changes from the first match for various reasons - there were three debutants - Joe Root had more Test caps (164), runs (13,952), wickets (73) and catches (216) than any of his team-mates.
He was the 11th to have this unusual distinction for England, the first since Andrew Flintoff in Sydney in 2007.
The others to have headed all four categories in the same match for England were Graham Gooch (in two Tests in 1993), Ian Botham (one in 1982), Gubby Allen (one in 1947-48), Wally Hammond (11 between 1933 and 1946-47), Frank Woolley (15 between 1921 and 1931), Wilfred Rhodes (nine between 1909-10 and 1929-30, Albert Trott (two in 1898-99), Johnny Briggs (three in 1897-98), George Lohmann (three in 1895-96) and George Ulyett (three between 1882 and 1888-89).
Shiva Jayaraman of ESPNcricinfo's stats team helped with some of the above answers.
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