How many players have started their careers with three successive fifties in ODIs?

The Dutch batter Max O'Dowd just scored his third half-century in three ODIs. How many people have started like this? asked Mike Kramer from Belgium
The New Zealand-born Netherlands batter Max O'Dowd started his one-day international career with 86 not out and 59 against Zimbabwe in June 2019, and added 82 against Scotland in Rotterdam last week (his sequence ended when he was out for 8 in the next game).

Remarkably, the only other man to make half-centuries in his first three ODIs also played for the Netherlands - Tom Cooper began with 80 not out and 87 against Scotland, then 67 against Kenya in 2010. The Indian opener Navjot Singh Sidhu hit half-centuries in his first three ODI innings, but that sequence included a match in which he did not bat.

In the women's game, Hayley Matthews of West Indies made 55, 89 and 60 in her first three ODIs, against Australia in November 2014.

I believe there has been one first-class hat-trick in which all three victims were stumped. When was this? asked Naval Patel from India
The match concerned was a long time ago - in the early days of the official County Championship, in August 1893. During a game in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire's amateur wicketkeeper William "Sam" Brain ended Somerset's second innings by stumping three batters off successive deliveries from Charles Townsend, a big-turning legspinner who was only 16 years old at the time. Wisden called it "a sensational incident", while the Times noted that "the innings was finished in a summary manner by young Mr Townsend". Six years later, he played two Tests in the 1899 Ashes series.

In all, Brain made five stumpings in the match, four of them off Townsend's bowling and the other off WG Grace. This was Brain's final season of county cricket, though he remained active at club level. He joined the family brewing business (which still survives), eventually becoming its chairman.

Is Khokhan Sen the only player who was born in what is now Bangladesh who played Test cricket for another country? asked SM Nazmus Shakib from Bangladesh
The Bengal wicketkeeper Probir "Khokhan" Sen, who played 14 Tests for India, was born in 1926 in Comilla, which was then part of India but is now in Bangladesh. The only other male Test player I can see who was born in present-day Bangladesh appeared in the very first Test of all, for Australia against England in Melbourne in March 1877; Bransby Cooper was born in Dacca, as Dhaka was known at the time. Cooper had played county cricket in England for Kent and Middlesex before moving in 1871 to Australia, where he worked in the Customs department.

The Pakistan fast bowler Niaz Ahmed, who won two Test caps in the late 1960s, played for East Pakistan before it became Bangladesh - but he was actually born in Benares (now Varanasi), in Uttar Pradesh in India.

Apparently there were two uncapped players in the Rest of the World team that toured Australia in 1971-72. Who were they? asked Chris Beckett from Australia
The World XI you're talking about undertook a full tour of Australia in 1971-72, replacing a trip by South Africa which was cancelled owing to the political situation there at the time. Garry Sobers reprised his role as World XI captain from 18 months previously in England, but this team was not as strong as that awesome 1970 line-up. After some criticism of his side's approach - they were bowled out for 59 in the second unofficial Test in Perth - Sobers unfurled one of the greatest innings of all in the next match, in Melbourne, spanking a memorable 254. "The innings was probably the best seen in Australia," said the watching Don Bradman, who played a few useful innings himself. "The people who saw Sobers have enjoyed one of the historic events of cricket. They were privileged to have such an experience."

The 1971-72 touring party included two players who had not appeared in official Tests at the time. One was Tony Greig, who had played against the Rest of the World XI in 1970 in matches later ruled as unofficial Tests. Greig made his full debut for England a few months after this series in the 1972 Ashes, and went on to win 58 caps. But the other man remained uncapped, thanks to South Africa's sporting isolation: opener Hylton Ackerman had a long career with several provincial teams at home, and spent some time with Northamptonshire. His son HD Ackerman did win four Test caps.

Further to last week's question about centuries in successive Tests, who has the similar record for centuries in the most consecutive innings? And what about five-wicket hauls? asked Adam Wilson from England
The great West Indian Everton Weekes, who died last year, is the only man to score centuries in five successive Test innings, against England in 1947-48 and India in 1948-49 - the sequence was ended by a questionable run-out decision when he had scored 90 in the fourth Test in Madras (now Chennai). By coincidence, the wicketkeeper who whipped the bails off was Khokhan Sen, who is mentioned above. Weekes recalled: "I went forward and started running but came back into my crease and watched the whole thing happen. The umpire might have thought he had seen enough of me for the series…"

Jack Fingleton (Australia), Alan Melville (South Africa) and Rahul Dravid (India) all scored centuries in four successive innings.

As far as the bowlers are concerned, the old Australian Charles "Terror" Turner is alone is recording six successive five-fors, all against England during 1888. Three bowlers have managed five in a row: the Surrey and England seamers Tom Richardson and Alec Bedser, and rather more recently, the West Indian offspinner Shane Shillingford.