Who has bettered Nathan Lyon's four wickets in six balls in a Test?

Fakhar Zaman and Sarfraz Ahmed both made 94 in the same innings in Abu Dhabi. Has this happened before? asked Hemant Kher from the United States
Pakistan's innings in Abu Dhabi last week was the first in any Test to contain twin 94s, if that's what you mean. But in Karachi in 1972-73, both Majid Khan and Mushtaq Mohammad were out for 99 in Pakistan's first innings against England - for whom Dennis Amiss also scored 99 in the match.

Mark Taylor and Ricky Ponting (on debut) were both out for 96 for Australia against Sri Lanka in Perth in 1995-96. And VVS Laxman and Irfan Pathan both made 90 for India against Pakistan in Faisalabad in 2005-06.

In all there have been no fewer than 56 Test innings that contained two scores of between 90 and 99. The record for a whole match is four, which has happened twice: by New Zealand and England in Christchurch in 1991-92 (Dipak Patel and John Wright both 99, Robin Smith 96, Allan Lamb 93), and by England and West Indies at The Oval in 1995 (Graeme Hick 96, Michael Atherton 95, Richie Richardson 93, Jack Russell 91; Sherwin Campbell also made 89 in this game). With Babar Azam also making 99, the match in Abu Dhabi became the 15th Test to contain three individual nineties (including the match in Karachi mentioned above).

The highest repeated score in any Test innings is 234, by Sid Barnes and Don Bradman for Australia against England in Sydney in 1946-47. Barnes wrote in his autobiography, It Isn't Cricket, that he got out deliberately at the same score, which at the time was the highest for Australia at the SCG: "I preferred to have my name associated with Don's in holding the joint record. I worshipped him… I hit one high above my head and walked out. In cricketer's language, I tossed my innings away."

Have any other Pakistanis reached the nineties on Test debut but failed to make a hundred before Fakhar Zaman? asked Kamal Siddiqui from Pakistan
Fakhar Zaman, with his 94 against Australia in Abu Dhabi, was the fourth Pakistani to be out in the nineties on his Test debut. The most agonising miss of all was recorded by Asim Kamal, who was out for 99 against South Africa in Lahore in 2002-03, and never did score a Test hundred. Nor did Abdul Kadir, who made 95 on debut against Australia in Karachi in 1964-65. But Taslim Arif, who started his brief Test career with 90 against India in Calcutta (later Kolkata) in 1979-80, did later make a double-century against Australia.

Eleven players have scored a century on Test debut for Pakistan; one of them, Yasir Hameed, actually made two.

Fakhar's match aggregate of 160 (94 and 66) has been exceeded on debut by non-centurions only by Australia's Bruce Laird, with 167 (92 and 75) against West Indies in Brisbane in 1979-80. Clive Lloyd also made 160 runs on debut (82 and 78 not out) for West Indies against India in Bombay in 1966-67.

Is Marnus Labuschagne the first man born in South Africa to play a Test for Australia? asked Nathan Crosby from Australia
Marnus Labuschagne - here's how his surname is pronounced - who was born in Klerksdorp in South Africa's North West Province, made his Test debut for Australia in the first Test of the ongoing series against Pakistan, in Dubai. His family moved to Australia in 2004, when he was ten.

The only other South African-born man to win a Test cap for Australia is Kepler Wessels, who appeared in 24 matches between 1982-83 and 1985-86, scoring 162 in the first, against England in Brisbane. He later returned to South Africa and played 16 Tests for them too.

Hilton Cartwright, who played two Tests for Australia last year, and turned out for Middlesex during the 2018 English season, was born in Zimbabwe's capital, Harare, in 1992.

Was Pakistan's victory in Abu Dhabi the largest not to include an individual century? asked Irshad Hussain from Pakistan
Pakistan's 373-run victory in Abu Dhabi was the 17th-biggest by runs in all Tests. All the 16 matches above it on the list included at least one individual century. The previous largest margin of victory without one was South Africa's 340-run win over England at Trent Bridge in 2017, when the highest score was Hashim Amla's 87.

Nathan Lyon claimed four wickets in six balls in Abu Dhabi. Has anyone bettered this in a Test? asked Cameron Mitchell from Australia
Nathan Lyon's remarkable burst of four for none in six balls on the first morning in Abu Dhabi briefly put Australia in charge during the second Test. The sequence, which spread across two overs, went WW00WW. The only other Australian known to have taken four in six is Jason Gillespie, against England in Perth in 1998-99 (W0WW0W). Despite ending the match with this performance, Gillespie was dropped for the next match; in his next Ashes Test, in 2001 - he had played 11 Tests against other countries in between - he struck with his first delivery, making five wickets in seven balls against England.

England's Ken Cranston took four wickets in a six-ball over against South Africa at Headingley in 1947 (W0WW0W), as did Fred Titmus, also for England at Headingley, against New Zealand in 1965 (W0WW0W). Andy Caddick also took four wickets in an over at Headingley, as England roared to a two-day victory over West Indies in 2000, but that one included a no-ball (W0WW0NW).

The others to have taken four wickets in six balls in Tests, spread across two overs, are England's Willie Bates against Australia in Melbourne in 1882-83 (a wicket fell at the other end during this sequence), Mohammad Sami for Pakistan v Sri Lanka in Lahore in 2001-02 (across two innings), Sohag Gazi for Bangladesh v New Zealand in Chittagong in 2013-14, Trent Boult for New Zealand v West Indies in Wellington in 2013-14, and Kemar Roach for West Indies v Bangladesh at North Sound in 2018.

Three men have taken four wickets in five balls in a Test match. The first was England's Maurice Allom, on his debut, against New Zealand in Christchurch in 1929-30 (his sequence went W0WWW). Another English seamer, Chris Old, followed suit against Pakistan at Edgbaston in 1978, with WWNWW (the third delivery was a no-ball). Wasim Akram joined this exclusive club in 1990-91, for Pakistan against West Indies in Lahore (WW0WW).

And there's one man who has taken four wickets in four balls in Tests, and five in six - but his feat was spread across two different matches. England's George Lohmann ended the first Test against South Africa in Port Elizabeth in 1895-96 with a hat-trick, then struck with his first and third deliveries in the next match, in Johannesburg. (Many thanks to the eminent Melbourne statistician Charles Davis for helping to complete this list.)