Yash Dhull played his first first-class match last week, and made 113 in both innings. Has this happened before? asked Sanjit Srivastava from Canada, and many others
In his first match since leading India to victory over England in the Under-19 World Cup in Antigua, the exciting Delhi prospect Yash Dhull marked his first-class debut by scoring 113 and 113 not out against Tamil Nadu in the Ranji Trophy in Guwahati.
Dhull is the ninth to score twin centuries on his first-class debut, but the first of those to make the same score in both innings. The previous record for a debutant was two scores of 56, by Bert "Poddy" Davie for Tasmania against Victoria in Launceston in February 1922, almost exactly 100 years before Dhull's effort.
Overall, there had been 24 previous instances of a player making the same score of 100 or more in both innings of a first-class game. The highest such double is 146 (run out) and 146 (not out), by John Langridge for Sussex against Derbyshire in Worthing in 1949. The highest in Tests is a brace of 105s by Duleep Mendis for Sri Lanka against India in Madras in 1982-83.
Who was the first man to score two centuries in the same Test? asked David Johnson from Ireland
Scoring two centuries in a Test has become relatively commonplace (it has been achieved 87 times now) but the first instance - and the only one in the first 45 years of Test cricket - was by the durable Australian Warren Bardsley, who made 136 and 130 for Australia against England at The Oval in 1909. Seventeen years later, aged 43, Bardsley carried his bat for 193 against England at Lord's.
In the first innings of a recent Ranji Trophy match, five Mumbai batters were out for ducks - was this a record? asked Siddharth from India
Mumbai's five duck-makers in the first innings of their match against Goa in Ahmedabad last week might be relieved to know they are well short of the record. There are many instances of six ducks in an innings (the most recent by Sussex - who still totalled 300 - against Derbyshire in Hove last September), and 34 cases of seven, the most recent by Sui Southern Gas against Multan in Pakistan's Quaid-e-Azam Trophy in Multan in September 2018.
But there are eight first-class innings that contained eight ducks, most of them in the far-distant past. The most recent of these came in July 1942, when Barbados skittled Trinidad for 16 in Bridgetown, with medium-pacer Derek Sealy taking 8 for 8. Trinidad's openers made 13 between them, but all the other batters were out for 0, apart from Gerry Gomez who remained undefeated with 3.
The previous instance of eight ducks in an innings came during a famous County Championship match in 1922, when Warwickshire dismissed Hampshire for 15 at Edgbaston: Hampshire followed on, made 521, and won by 155 runs.
Multan Sultans had two hundred partnerships in their innings in a recent Pakistan Super League match. How rare is this? asked Sheraz Muzafar from Pakistan
In the match you're talking about, for Multan Sultans against Quetta Gladiators in the PSL in Lahore last month, Mohammad Rizwan put on 119 for the first wicket with Shan Masood, then 103 for the second with the South African Rilee Rossouw, who clouted 71 from 26 balls. This was the 12th occasion that a senior T20 innings had contained two separate hundred partnerships.
Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers put on 229 for RCB in an IPL game in 2016. Is this the highest in any T20 match? asked Peter Manford from England
That partnership of 229 came for Royal Challengers Bangalore against Gujarat Lions at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in 2016; Virat Kohli hit 109, and AB de Villiers 129 not out. It's the overall IPL record, and the highest for the second wicket in all T20s - but there has been one higher opening partnership. For Afghanistan against Ireland in a T20I in Dehradun in February 2019, Hazratullah Zazai (162 not out, with 16 sixes) and Usman Ghani (73) put on 236 for the first wicket.
In all, there have been 15 partnerships of 200 or more in senior T20 cricket, three of them in international matches.
And there's an update to one of last week's questions, from Sameeranga Patwari from India
"Regarding the question about the most runs added after the loss of the fifth wicket, in one-day internationals the highest is actually 267, by New Zealand against Sri Lanka in Dunedin in January 2015. They were on the back foot at 93 for 5, but recovered to 360 for 5 - so added 267 - mainly thanks to the No. 7 Luke Ronchi, who scored 170 not out."
This is correct, so I'm sorry for misleading everyone last week - I must have entered something incorrectly when I did the search for ODIs. There was another instance higher than the two I mentioned: in Chennai in June 2007, the Asian XI were 72 for 5 against Africa, before Mahela Jayawardene (107) and MS Dhoni (139 not out), lifted them to 331 for 8. For what I believe is now the correct list, click here.
Shiva Jayaraman of ESPNcricinfo's stats team helped with some of the above answers.
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