What is the IPL record for the most wides in a match?

Praful Hinge took three wickets in his first over in the IPL. Has anyone else ever done this? asked Jatin Visakhar from India

A 24-year-old seamer from Nagpur, Praful Hinge had a memorable opening over on his debut for Sunrisers Hyderabad against Rajasthan Royals in Hyderabad last week. His second ball had Vaibhav Sooryavanshi caught behind, Dhruv Jurel was bowled by the fourth, and Lhuan-dre Pretorius caught at backward square off the sixth: all three made ducks.

It's not a great surprise to discover that Hinge is in a bracket of his own as the only bowler to take three wickets in his first over in the IPL. Three men had previously managed two: Dillon du Preez for Royal Challengers Bangalore against Mumbai Indians in Johannesburg in May 2009, Amit Singh forRajasthan Royals vs Kings XI Punjab in Durban two days later, and Sachin Baby for RCB against Gujarat Lions in Bengaluru in 2016.

I had an enjoyable time at Lord's last week as a guest at the Wisden launch dinner. I was wondering how many other Wisden Cricketers of the Year never played in a Test match? asked Phil Bainbridge from Bristol

It's always great to receive a query like this from the horse's mouth, as it were. Phil Bainbridge was one of Wisden's Five Cricketers of the Year in 1986, after scoring 1644 runs at 56 for Gloucestershire the previous summer. In all he made more than 15,000 runs in a career that latterly included playing for (and captaining) Durham, but he was never chosen for England.

He is far from being the only non-Test player among Wisden's Cricketers of the Year. A total of 635 players have now been given the oldest individual award in cricket, which started in 1889. Of those, 70 never appeared in an official Test match, although one of them, Glamorgan's Alan Jones (a Cricketer of the Year in 1978), did play an unofficial Test against the Rest of the World in 1970. There are also nine men who appeared in official one-day internationals but not Tests: the most recent of these was Dan Worrall in 2025.

I should give the usual reminder here that the Five are selected largely on their influence on the previous English season, and no one can be chosen more than once. Bainbridge was one of several former Cricketers of the Year who were welcome guests at last week's dinner to launch the 2026 Wisden, held in the Long Room at Lord's.

Four Northamptonshire batters got to the crease against Kent last week, and all of them scored centuries. Was this unique? asked Adrian Johnstone from Northampton, among others

Northamptonshire ran up 684 for 2 declared in their Championship match against Kent in Canterbury last week. Luke Procter made 261 not out, while Ricardo Vasconcelos hit 127, Calvin Harrison 153 and Nathan McSweeney 101 not out. There have been several other first-class innings in which the top four all reached 100 - but only two previous cases of only four men batting: by the Indians (533 for 3 declared) against Sussex in Hove in 1946, and by Goa (589 for 2 dec) against Arunachal Pradesh in Porvorim in 2020.

Northamptonshire's total was the second-highest to end at only two wickets down, after a different match between Goa and Arunachal Pradesh in Porvorim, in 2024. Goa declared at 727 for 2 after Kashyap Bakhle followed Snehal Kauthankar in reaching 300.

A unique feature of Northamptonshire's innings against Kent was that it contained three successive partnerships of 200-plus. The only other first-class innings to contain three stands of 200 or more was by Delhi in a Ranji Trophy semi-final against Karnataka in Delhi in 1987: they ran up 711 for 3, but partnerships of 234, 215 and 261 (unbroken) were interrupted when 1983 World Cup winner Kirti Azad was out for a duck.

There were 20 wides in the RCB-MI game at the weekend. Was this anywhere near the record? How about for any T20 match? asked Bhuvi Kumar (not that one!) from India

The 20 runs from wides in that game at the Wankhede Stadium last weekend was a fair way short of the IPL record, which is 33 runs from wides in a match between Punjab Kings (12) and Royal Challengers Bengaluru (21) in Navi Mumbai in 2022.

I imagine the umpires' arms were rather tired from signalling in the match that provided the overall T20 record: in an official international in Malkerns in 2022, Eswatini conceded 30 runs from wides, and Mozambique 25.

The women's record is even higher: a match between Luxembourg and Romania in Corfu in 2023 featured 105 runs in wides. Cambodia's game against Philippines in Phnom Penh in 2022 included 95 runs from wides - and only 90 off the bat.

Who holds the record for the most catches in a Test match? asked Kieran O'Rourke from Ireland

Three wicketkeepers share the record of 11 catches in a Test match. The first to do it was Jack Russell, for England against South Africa in Johannesburg in 1995, and his mark was equalled by AB de Villiers for South Africa vs Pakistan in Johannesburg in 2013, and Rishabh Pant for India vs Australia in Adelaide in 2018.

I wasn't sure whether you meant the record for a wicketkeeper or an outfielder. The most by an outfielder happened last November, when South Africa's Aiden Markram held on to nine catches in the match against India in Guwahati. The previous record was eight, by Ajinkya Rahane for India against Sri Lanka in Galle in 2015.

Shiva Jayaraman of ESPNcricinfo's stats team helped with some of the above answers.

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