In the recent Old Trafford Test match, England’s Ben Stokes aggregated over 200 runs and also claimed 3 wickets. How many players have achieved this in Test cricket? – Ajay Pawar on Twitter

Aggregating 200+ runs and 3+ wickets in the same Test match have been achieved on 31 occasions, with Vinoo Mankad and Jacques Kallis doing it on three occasions, while another South African Aubrey Faulkner did it twice. Australian George Giffen (161+41 and 4+4) was the first to achieve this against England at Sydney in Dec 1894. This was the match which England won by 10 runs after being made to follow on.

However, making 250+ runs and claiming 3+ wickets in a Test match have occurred only on five occasions.

Ben Stokes (176 + 78* runs and 1 + 2 wickets) in the Manchester Test match thus became the first Englishman and the fifth player in all Test cricket to achieve this in a match. The full list is given hereunder:

Note: Stokes also became the fifth England player to make over 200+ runs and also claim 3+ wickets in the same Test match. The others being Wally Hammond (in 1936), Denis Compton (1947), Bill Edrich (1947) and Ted Dexter (1962).

How often have wicket-keepers been dismissed twice for ducks in a Test match? – Siraj S on Twitter

A2) I presume you are referring to the recent batting pair by West Indian Shane Dowrich in the Manchester Test match. That incidentally, was the 52nd pair recorded by a wicket-keeper in Test cricket history. The first keeper to achieve this dubious distinction was Australian James Kelly against England at Sheffield in July 1902. Three wicket-keepers have had the misfortune to bag a pair twice in their career – West Indians David Williams and Ridley Jacobs and Sri Lankan Prasanna Jayawardene. Dowrich thus became the 11th West Indian keeper to bag a pair for the 13th occasion. For the record, three Indian keepers – Nana Joshi, Naren Tamhane and Farokh Engineer have also made pairs during their Test career. In Engineer’s case, he never played a Test match again for India!

How many ducks has Rahul Dravid made in his FC career? Which bowler has dismissed him for a duck on most occasions? – Akhil Shetty on Facebook

On 27 occasions Rahul Dravid has failed to open his account in his first-class career. This includes one innings where he remained not out (for Karnataka against Uttar Pradesh at Bangalore in January 2010). His first duck came in the Duleep Trophy semi-finals for South Zone against North Zone at Surat in January 1992. He was then caught by keeper Vijay Yadav off the bowling off Atul Wassan. The mode of his 26 dismissals by 23 bowlers have been: 11 – caught, 8 – LBW, 6 – bowled and also includes a run out. The only run out coming in the Lahore Test match in April 2004, and that too without facing a ball! He was then the captain of the side.

Australian Glenn McGrath has the distinction of dismissing him on a duck on most occasions – three, while the remaining of 22 bowlers have managed to claim his wicket just once for a duck!

How many Test batsmen have been held the record for both the highest run aggregate and also the highest individual score at the same time? – Manjit Singh on Facebook

The first name that comes to mind is West Indian Brian Lara with an aggregate of 11953 runs and also having the highest score of 400 not out at the time of his final Test match in December 2006. He held this record until October 2008, when Sachin Tendulkar bettered his then Test record tally of 11953 runs.

Investigating this further, I was able to find the following five players who have this distinction in Test cricket history. The table below has the details:

How many batsmen have come to bat after 30 overs and have managed to score a century in ODI cricket? - Harikrishnan U on Twitter

Four batsmen have managed to score a century on six occasions after coming in to bat after the 30th over. South African AB de Villiers and Englishman Jos Buttler have managed to achieve this on two occasions during their ODI career. All the instances are listed hereunder in chronological order:

Note: de Villiers (162* in 66 balls) almost managed to do this for the third time, but he came in to bat in the 30th over (29.5 overs) against West Indies at Sydney in Feb 2015. 

All records mentioned above are updated as on 26 July 2020 

If you have any cricket-related questions, then ask them using the #AskMohan and #StatsBurst hashtags on our social media channels. Reputed statistician, Mohandas Menon will be answering the selected questions.