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Loads of questions arise in your mind regarding the game of cricket and its records. Our expert cricket statistician Rajneesh Gupta will answer your questions in this regular feature.
Here are a few questions answered:
Name: A B
Question: Who holds the record for most instances of centuries in each innings of a Test match? Also, which Indian has achieved the feat most times?
Rajneesh Gupta: When Australia's Phil Hughes scored 115 in the first innings of the Durban Test against South Africa and followed it up with a 160 in the second innings, he provided the 66th instance of a batsman scoring hundreds in both innings of a Test.
A total of 54 batsmen have performed this feat, with eight doing so on two occasions apiece. They are: England's Herbert Sutcliffe, West Indies' George Headley and Clyde Walcott; Australia's Greg Chappell, Allan Border and Matthew Hayden; Sri Lanka's Aravinda de Silva and India's Rahul Dravid. Two batsmen -- India's Sunil Gavaskar and Australia's Ricky Ponting -- top the list with THREE such instances.
Name: Deepak S K
Question: Which is the lowest target set in the fourth innings by a team, which still managed to win the match by bowling out the chasing team. Please give me the top five.
Rajneesh Gupta: The following table lists the top-5 fourth innings targets which a side failed to achieve and lost the Test:
| Target | Score | For | Vs | Venue | Season | Winner & Margin |
| 85 | 77 | Eng | Aus | The Oval | 1882 | Aus- 7 runs |
| 99 | 63 | Zim | WI | Port-of-Spain | 1999-00 | WI- 35 runs |
| 107 | 93 | Aus | Ind | Mumbai WS | 2004-05 | Ind- 13 runs |
| 111 | 97 | Aus | Eng | Sydney | 1886-87 | Eng- 13 runs |
| 111 | 44 | Aus | Eng | The Oval | 1896 | Eng- 66 runs |
Name: Pallab Biswas
Question: A bowler takes wickets off consecutive balls before bowling a no-ball or a wide ball. He takes another wicket of the next ball. Is it a hat-trick?
Rajneesh Gupta: A hat-trick can only be achieved off three consecutive deliveries. In case a no-ball or a wide is bowled, it will not be considered a hat-trick.
Name: Yashasvi
Question: Do you consider Saeed Anwar's 194 worth going into the record books considering that most of his runs were scored by his runner Shahid Afridi? I know a record is a record, but I feel Jayasuriya and Viv Richards'189 should be considered as world record as they were scored all by themselves.
Rajneesh Gupta: A very interesting point,Yashashvi! Shahid Afridi came as Anwar's runner as early as at the start of 20th over and remained there till the end when Anwar was finally out in 47th over. That Anwar scored 127 of his 194 runs in the presence of Shahid Afridi justifies your point, but up to an extent only. Anwar still needed to hit the ball and place it into the gaps to make his runs. Before Afridi came out as his runner Anwar had hit 8 fours and 2 sixes. That he managed another 14 fours and 3 sixes thereafter clearly shows how well Anwar was connecting the ball. Afridi ran only 51 of his runs, which you may consider too many, particularly in the energy-sapping heat of Chennai, but you should also give credit to Anwar who batted so brilliantly despite being in pain.
Name: Shashank Pawar
Question: May I know which batsman has scored more than 5,000 runs in Test cricket with a lowest batting average? Also, who is the Indian batsman to have acquired this feat?
Rajneesh Gupta: A total of 74 batsmen have aggregated 5,000 runs in Test cricket (till Test # 1914). India's Kapil Dev ended his Test career with 5,248 runs in 131 matches at an average of 31.05, which is the lowest for a batsman in this distinguished club. Another all-rounder England's Ian Botham comes next with an average of 33.55. Among the 'specialist' batsmen, Sri Lanka's Arjuna Ranatunga ended with the lowest average (35.70) followed by West Indies' Carl Hooper (36.47) and England's Nasser Hussain (37.19)
Name: Gowtham
Question: Who holds the record of scoring most runs and being not out in continuous innings, both in Tests & ODIs?
Rajneesh Gupta: West Indies' Alf Valentine and New Zealand's Ewen Chatfield hold the record of remaining not out in most consecutive innings -- eight apiece. The sequence for Valentine was between July 1957 and January 1961, while Chatfield's sequence came in 1985 between January and May. In terms of scoring most runs in consecutive not out innings, India's Sachin Tendulkar is on the top. Tendulkar aggregated 495 runs (in three innings) between January and April 2004.
In ODIs, Pakistan's Shoaib Akhtar holds this record. Between April 1999 and March 2000, Shoaib remained not out in 12 consecutive innings, aggregating 24 runs. Australia's Rodney Hogg is the only other batsman to remain not out in 10 consecutive innings (between January-June 1983). South Africa's Lance Klusener had a sequence of nine consecutive innings between February and June 1999 in which he aggregated 396 runs!
Name: Manick Venkatachalam
Question: How many 100-plus runs partnerships has Tendulkar put on ODI matches? How does the record compare with others?
Rajneesh Gupta: Tendulkar has been involved in 89 century partnerships in ODIs, which is the most by any batsman in the game's history. Another Indian and former teammate, Sourav Ganguly, is a distant second with 66 century stands. Here is the list of top-5 batsmen:
| Batsman | For | Mts | 100-partnerships |
| SR Tendulkar | Ind | 425 | 89 |
| SC Ganguly | Ind | 311 | 66 |
| RT Ponting | Aus | 310 | 61 |
| R Dravid | Ind | 333 | 55 |
| ST Jayasuriya | SL | 432 | 54 |
Name: Vishal
Question: If the batsmen is stumped out on a wide ball, is the ball counted or still it is considered to be wide and run is given despite the batsmen being out?
Rajneesh Gupta: The ball will still be considered wide and an extra will be added to batting side's total.
Name: Joydip Bhattacharya
Question: Who has scored the highest percentage of the team's score in his career for the matches he has played in ODIs? I mean, in case say Azhar has scored 100 of India's total of 200, his percentage in that ODI is 50%. So in this way I would like to know the top 5 batsman in the world. It should be divided then in winning and losing matches. (Consider those who have played at least 100 ODI)
Rajneesh Gupta: Here is the reply to your query, Joydip:
Batsmen with highest percentage of team score
| % | Batsman | For | Mts | Runs | Team Runs |
| 19.26 | CG Greenidge | WI | 128 | 5134 | 26657 |
| 18.15 | DL Haynes | WI | 238 | 8648 | 47655 |
| 17.89 | SR Tendulkar | Ind | 425 | 16684 | 93246 |
| 17.65 | GR Marsh | Aus | 117 | 4357 | 24681 |
| 17.63 | IVA Richards | WI | 187 | 6721 | 38112 |
in WON matches
| % | Batsman | For | Mts | Runs | Team Runs |
| 21.55 | CG Greenidge | WI | 90 | 4185 | 19416 |
| 21.06 | BC Lara | WI | 139 | 6553 | 31113 |
| 20.44 | NJ Astle | NZ | 92 | 4254 | 20813 |
| 20.43 | MD Crowe | NZ | 61 | 2694 | 13184 |
| 20.01 | GC Smith | SA | 79 | 3746 | 18723 |
| 20.00 | SR Tendulkar | Ind | 213 | 10140 | 50690 |
in LOST matches
| % | Batsman | For | Mts | Runs | Team Runs |
| 17.60 | NV Knight | Eng | 53 | 1910 | 10854 |
| 17.43 | Javed Miandad | Pak | 104 | 3364 | 19298 |
| 16.42 | CH Gayle | WI | 96 | 3207 | 19533 |
| 15.69 | DC Boon | Aus | 63 | 1933 | 12321 |
| 15.67 | S Chanderpaul | WI | 130 | 4097 | 26148 |
Name: Duraisamy
Question: For deliberate padding runs will not be allowed, but what will happen when a batsman takes evasive action and the ball hits his helmet or body? Can he go for runs? Will it be counted??