Was the Rajasthan Royals' 226 for 6 last week the highest successful chase in the IPL?
The Rajasthan Royals chased down 226 for 6 against KXIP, breaking their own record of 217 for 8 against Deccan Chargers in the first IPL season
Abdullah Shafique scored a century on debut in the Pakistan National T20 Cup the other day, and he had already made a hundred on his debut in first-class cricket. Has anyone else managed this particular double? asked David Gilpin from England
Abdullah Shafique, who's still only 20, made an unbeaten 102 from 58 balls in his first senior T20 match, for Central Punjab against Southern Punjab in Multan a few days ago. Last December, in what remains his only first-class match to date, he made 133 - for Central against Southern Punjab - in a high-scoring Quaid-e-Azam Trophy game in Karachi.
As this list shows, only eight batsmen have hit a century in their first T20 match. Since one of them was playing for Serbia and another for Canada - both countries with no first-class structure - it seemed likely that no one else had done this double, but that turned out to be wrong. Chandigarh's Shivam Bambri made 106 (from 57 balls, with seven sixes) on his T20 debut, against Himachal Pradesh in Chandigarh in November 2019, and added 105 a month later in his maiden first-class match, against Arunachal Pradesh, also at the Sector 16 Stadium in Chandigarh.
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Rajasthan Royals scored 226 for 6 to beat Kings XI Punjab last week - was this the highest successful chase in the IPL? asked Michael Seymour from Brazil
The short answer is yes: the Rajasthan Royals' 226 for 6 in reply to the Kings XI Punjab's 223 for 2 in Sharjah last week was the highest successful run chase in the IPL, beating the Royals' own 217 for 8 to defeat Deccan Chargers (214 for 5) in Hyderabad back in April 2008. It was also the highest total in the second innings of any IPL game, beating the Royals' 223 for 5 against the Chennai Super Kings - who had scored 246 for 5, and so won by 23 runs - in Chennai in April 2010.
Is it right that the infamous "dirt in the pocket" match at Lord's in 1994 was the last time England selected a Test team entirely made up of right-hand batsmen? asked Rob Parker from England
That match against South Africa at Lord's in 1994 - when England's captain, Mike Atherton, was spotted by the cameras applying dirt from his pocket to the ball - was indeed the most recent occasion that England's Test team was made up of 11 right-hand batsmen. England have played 323 Test matches since, and have had at least one left-hander in all of them. The last Test team from anywhere composed of 11 right-handers was fielded by India against West Indies in Port-of-Spain in August 2016.
Bangladesh on the way to their first-innings 595 at the Basin Reserve in 2017. They subsequently lost the match after making only 160 in the second Getty Images
In Melbourne in 1972-73 Pakistan scored 574 but lost. Is this the highest Test total in defeat? asked Jamie Stewart from Canada
Pakistan's 574 for 8 declared in Melbourne in 1972-73, a match Australia ended up winning reasonably comfortably by 92 runs, was actually just short of the record at the time: Australia themselves had amassed 586 in Sydney in 1894-95, but lost by ten runs in the end as England became the first team to win a Test match after following on. But this record was broken in Wellington in 2016-17. Bangladesh looked impregnable after declaring their first innings at 595 for 8, but managed only 160 in their second, and New Zealand went on to win with about an hour to spare.
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und in Derby held all five of the women's T20Is against West Indies, has it now hosted more such matches than any other venue? asked Steven Woodward from England
After the recent series between England and West Indies, the old Racecourse Ground in Derby has now hosted seven women's T20Is (it also staged games in 2006 and 2009). But that still places it well down the list of the most-used venues. In England, Taunton has held 21 women's T20Is, and Chelmsford nine; the Scottish grounds of Arbroath and Dundee have both had ten.
Worldwide, the identity of the ground that has staged the most women's T20Is could help you win a sports quiz: the Asian Institute of Technology in Bangkok, Thailand has held 30 to date. The only other ground to have seen more than Taunton's 21 is the Sylhet International Stadium in Bangladesh.