Q: I remember reading about Vijay Hazare scoring twin centuries in a Test in Australia and still seeing his team lose the match by an innings. Hashim Amla did the same thing against India earlier this year - Hazare's Test must have been a six-day game; thus, is Amla the only batsman to score twin centuries and lose by an innings in a five-day Test?

A :That's a long question - but the simple answer is yes. Hazare's 116 and 145 (scored at Adelaide Oval in 1947\48 - the Fourth Test of India's first tour of Australia) did indeed come in a six-day Test, and Clyde Walcott scored 155 and 110 only to see his side go down to Australia by an innings - his match came in the Fifth Test of the 1955 series in the Caribbean, which was also a six-day match. The only man to have come particularly close to foreshadowing Amla is Brian Lara, who at Sinhalese Sports Club in 2001/02 scored 221 and 130 and, in five days, still saw West Indies lose to Sri Lanka by ten wickets, having been asked to score just 26 in the fourth-innings.

Q: Have any batsmen ever been run-out in both innings of the same Test?

A: There have been quite a few - 22 so far, in fact. The first was Peter "Percy" McAlister of Australia (who is perhaps best known for an in-selection-box bust-up with fellow batsman Clem Hill) at the MCG against England in 1907/08, and the most recent presently is Stephen Fleming, who suffered the fate at Basin Reserve against Zimbabwe in 2000/01. A couple of these 22, remarkably, somehow managed it twice: Mark Taylor in just his 2nd Test, against West Indies at Adelaide Oval in 1988/89, then again against England in 1990/91 (also at Adelaide Oval); and a man who appeared alongside him from first Test to last - Ian Healy - whose two both came in the Caribbean, at Bourda in 1991 and Sabina Park in 1999.

Q: Who was the first South African batsman to be dismissed for a duck post-readmission (in Tests only)?

A: Allan Donald's 0 in the first-innings of their first Test back - at Kensington Oval in 1992 - claims this title.

Q: And who took their first post-readmission wicket?

A: After an opening stand of 99 between Desmond Haynes and the (relative) new face Phil Simmons, Richard Snell broke the stand by dismissing Simmons. It was the first of 8 wickets Snell took in the match - at a cost of 157 runs from just 34 overs; an economy-rate of 4.61-an-over.