Also: what is the record for the most consecutive first-class fifties?

Steven Lynch31-May-2021Two players opened the batting in a Test, and later their sons opened together too. Who were these people? asked Maneck Divecha from India
This unusual double was completed when Mudassar Nazar and Shoaib Mohammad opened the innings for Pakistan against New Zealand in Karachi in 1984-85. Their fathers, Nazar Mohammad and Hanif Mohammad, opened in Pakistan’s inaugural Test, in Delhi against India in 1952-53.Who took the most wickets in first-class cricket without ever taking ten in a match – is it Peter Siddle? asked Evan Sweney from New Zealand
Essex’s Australian fast bowler Peter Siddle currently lies seventh on this list, from which I suppose he may yet escape. Before the round of Championship matches that started last Thursday, he had taken 645 first-class wickets, with a best match return of 9 for 77, for Victoria against South Australia in Melbourne in 2011-12. Ahead of him lay Lancashire’s Paul Allott (652 wickets), Bertie Buse of Somerset (657), the three-county seamer David Masters (672), Warwickshire’s Freddie Calthorpe (782), Hampshire’s Mike Taylor (830) and the overall leader, Glamorgan and England allrounder Allan Watkins, who took 833 wickets without the aid of a ten-for. Garry Sobers finished with 1043 wickets in first-class cricket with just one haul of ten – 11 for 156 for Nottinghamshire against Kent in Dover in 1968.In Test matches, the record is held by the late Bob Willis, who took 325 wickets with a best match return of 9 for 92, for England against New Zealand at Headingley in 1983; Brett Lee took 310 Test wickets without a ten-for, and Morne Morkel 309.Babar Azam has won his first four Tests as captain. What’s the record for this? asked Qamaruddin Ijaz from Pakistan
Babar Azam is one of five men who won their first four Tests in charge, following Englishmen WG Grace, Lord Hawke and Brian Close, South Africa’s Ali Bacher (who won all four Tests he captained), and MS Dhoni of India. But two others are some way ahead: Warwick Armstrong won the first eight Tests in which he captained Australia, while later in the 1920s, England’s Percy Chapman went one better, winning his first nine matches in charge.Percy Chapman (seated, centre) led England to victory in the first nine matches he captained•Getty ImagesI know that the record for the most successive first-class hundreds is six. But what’s the most half-centuries in a row? asked Andrew Percival from England
Three men have managed a run of ten successive first-class scores of 50 or over. The first to do it was the Lancashire and England batter Ernest Tyldesley, in 1926. His sequence included seven centuries, and ended with an innings of 81 after being recalled for the fourth Test against Australia at home at Old Trafford. In his next innings, against Essex, he made 44.Almost inevitably, Don Bradman is also on the list, achieving the feat during 1948, starting in Australia and concluding in England. His run also included seven centuries, plus 98 for the Australians against MCC at Lord’s; in his next innings, against Lancashire at Old Trafford, he was bowled for 11 by slow left-armer Malcolm Hilton, who achieved brief celebrity in England by also dismissing the Don in the second innings.The third man to do it is perhaps a surprise name: in 1994-95, the attacking wicketkeeper-batter Romesh Kaluwitharana hit ten successive half-centuries – converting only one of them to three figures – for Galle and Western Province South in Sri Lanka.Bradman is also one of the three batters who scored six hundreds in successive first-class innings (in a different spell in 1938-39), along with CB Fry (1901) and Mike Procter (1970-71). Everton Weekes (1955-56), Brian Lara (1993-94), Mike Hussey (2003), Parthiv Patel (2007-08) and Kumar Sangakkara (2017) all managed five in a row.Adil Rashid took 5 for 85 in his ten overs against West Indies early in 2019. Was this the most expensive five-wicket haul in a one-day international? asked Nitesh Aryal from Nepal
The quick answer is yes: Adil Rashid’s 5 for 85 for England against West Indies in Grenada in February 2019 was the most expensive five-for in an ODI, beating Scotsman Gordon Goudie’s 5 for 73 against Australia in Edinburgh in 2009. It could have been worse: Rashid actually had 1 for 85 before finishing his spell with four wickets in five balls.Later in 2019, during the World Cup, Mustafizur Rahman took 5 for 75 for Bangladesh against Pakistan at Lord’s to edge Goudie down another place in the list. In fourth spot lies England’s Steven Finn, whose 5 for 71 against Australia in Melbourne during the previous World Cup, in 2015, included a hat-trick with the last three balls of the innings.And there are a couple of additions to last week’s question about players who scored half-centuries in their first three one-day internationals, from Nik Boon and Philip Kemp
Navjot Singh Sidhu actually passed 50 in his first four ODI innings, although that run did include a match in which he didn’t bat, as was stated in the column. And Kepler Wessels made half-centuries in his first four ODIs for South Africa, in 1991-92, having already played several for Australia.Use our feedback form, or the Ask Steven Facebook page to ask your stats and trivia questions