Does Zak Crawley have the highest individual Test score at more than a run a ball?

Zak Crawley hit 189 from 182 balls at Old Trafford. Was this the highest Test score made at faster than a run a ball? asked Niall Edwards from Ireland
That exciting innings by Zak Crawley in the fourth Test at Old Trafford was the highest score in an Ashes Test at a strike rate of over 100, beating the previous record of 152 by Adam Gilchrist (143 balls) at Edgbaston in 2001, and Travis Head (148) in Brisbane in 2021-22. The noted Australian statistician Charles Davis, who has re-scored many early Tests from original sources, estimates that Joe Darling made 160 from 160 balls for Australia vs England in Sydney in 1897-98.

There are eight higher scores in all Tests at better than a run a ball, the biggest being Virender Sehwag's 319 off 304 for India against South Africa in Chennai in 2007-08. Sehwag is also second on this list, with 293 from 254 deliveries against Sri Lanka in Mumbai in 2009-10. Next comes Ben Stokes, with 258 from 198 against South Africa in Cape Town in 2015-16, just ahead of another Sehwag special - 254 from 247 against Pakistan in Lahore in 2005-06.

The other scores higher than Crawley's 189 at a strike rate above 100 are Nathan Astle's 222 from 168 balls for New Zealand against England in Christchurch in 2001-02, two electric innings by England's current coach Brendon McCullum (202 from 188 for New Zealand against Pakistan in Sharjah in November 2014, and 195 from 134 vs Sri Lanka in Christchurch a month later), and Shikhar Dhawan's 190 from 168 against Sri Lanka in Galle in 2017.

It's a sign of the times that the earliest of the innings mentioned above was in 2002. The highest in the previous century was Ian Smith's 173 from 136 balls for New Zealand against India in Auckland in 1989-90.

England's team at Old Trafford included ten players with more than 1000 Test runs each. Was this a record? asked Sandy Whitlock from England
You're right that ten of England's players in the fourth Ashes Test at Old Trafford had more than 1000 runs each when the match started (the odd one out was Mark Wood, with 681). That turns out to be the most by any national side in a Test match, equalled only by the multinational World XI against Australia in the one-off Super Series Test in Sydney late in 2005 (Steve Harmison was the outlier that time).

There have been 18 instances of a team starting a Test with nine players who each had 1000 or more runs, including Australia at Old Trafford, in which 19 of the 22 participants therefore had a four-figure run total to their name.

England's starting XI at Old Trafford also included five bowlers with 100 wickets each; Mark Wood joined them during the game, the first occasion a Test side had included six men with more than 100. It remains to be seen whether they will all start the next match at The Oval.

How many people have been stranded on 99 not out in a Test, like poor old Jonny Bairstow? asked Terry Daniels from England
Jonny Bairstow was the seventh player to finish with a score of 99 not out in a Test, during the fourth Ashes match at Old Trafford. Six of them were left high and dry when the last man was dismissed - but at Edgbaston in 1999 Alex Tudor had 95 when he hit the four that sealed England's win over New Zealand.

The first man to be left stranded on 99 in a Test was Bairstow's fellow Yorkshireman Geoff Boycott, against Australia in Perth in 1979-80. The only other instance in an Ashes Test was also in Perth, in 1994-95, when Steve Waugh's batting partner was run-out after a mix-up involving his runner - Waugh's twin, Mark.

Bairstow has also been out for 99 in a Test, against South Africa in 2017, again at Old Trafford. He's one of only 11 men to have recorded two scores of 99 (that includes Misbah-ul-Haq, who uniquely made three 99s, one of them not-out).

In all, there have been 28 instances of 99 not out in men's internationals across the formats. There has only been one in a women's international, by Carol-Ann James of West Indies against Denmark in the 50-over World Cup in Delhi in December 1997.

Tammy Beaumont scored a double-century in the recent women's Ashes Test, but England still lost. Was this the highest score in a losing cause in a Test match? asked Chloe Jackson from England
The England opener Tammy Beaumont's 208 against Australia at Trent Bridge last month was easily the highest score in a losing cause in a women's Test, surpassing Claire Taylor's 137 for England vs Australia at Headingley in 2001.

The men's record is 242, by Ricky Ponting for Australia against India in Adelaide in 2003-04. In all, there have been 18 individual double-centuries in defeats in men's Tests.

In that same women's Ashes match at Trent Bridge, slow left-armer Sophie Ecclestone took ten wickets, making it the first Test - men's or women's - in which the losing side had a batter with a double-century and a bowler with a ten-for.

Alick Athanaze top-scored for West Indies in both innings of his debut recently. Was this unique? asked Rajat Sharma from the United States
Making his Test debut in the first Test of the current series in front of his home crowd in Dominica, left-hander Alick Athanaze top-scored with 47 out of 150 in West Indies' first innings, and 28 out of 130 in the second.

I don't suppose he'll be too delighted, as West Indies still lost heavily, but Athanaze was the 15th man to top-score in both innings of his debut (all-out totals only). The first to do this was England's Edward Tylecote, against Australia in Melbourne in 1882-83, while the last was Kevin O'Brien, in Ireland's inaugural Test, against Pakistan at Malahide in May 2018.

Also in Dominica, the Indian opener Yashasvi Jaiswal hit 171, becoming the first debutant to make a score higher than both the opposition innings in the same Test.