Has any other player won the purple cap twice in the IPL like Harshal Patel has?

Calvin Harrison bowled an over in a county match the other day that was described as a "smudger". What does this mean? asked Bill Dunmore from England
That over by the Nottinghamshire legspinner Calvin Harrison came during their Championship match against Hampshire at Trent Bridge last week. It was the 48th over of Hampshire's second innings, near the end of the match. The first delivery went for five wides, then the subsequent balls went for three, two, six, four and one, before the final delivery was a dot. Every ball of the over thus had a different outcome: this unusual event is apparently known on the county circuit as a "Smudger", after the former Middlesex opener Mike "MJ" Smith. He was a tall batter, with an unusual movement across the crease as the bowler delivered, and played five one-day internationals for England in 1973 and 1974.

After his playing career, Smith became Middlesex's scorer, and apparently recorded an over like this in one game. According to Martin Briggs, a regular on the Ask Steven Facebook page: "He noticed one such over when scoring a county match years ago and thereafter was forever on the lookout for another. He was apparently held in great affection on the circuit, and county scorers named that kind of over after him, 'Smudger' being a common nickname for a Smith. I think I heard the story from Derbyshire's former scorer John Brown."

Such overs are obviously difficult to spot, but I asked the Melbourne statistician Charles Davis whether his wondrous international database could throw up any other examples. This is not a definitive list, but he did discover a few: "In India's ODI against Pakistan in Mohali in April 1999, an over by Virender Sehwag - who was making his debut - included (not in order) a dot ball, three singles, a single off a no-ball (two on to the total), a delivery that went for three wides, a four, a four off a no-ball (five runs for the total), and a six. I haven't found any six-delivery overs in Tests or ODIs that contained 012345 or 123456, but there a few with 012346 (not in that order). However, the strangest such over must surely have come in Bombay(now Mumbai) in 1951-52, when the 44th over of India's first innings, bowled by England's Brian Statham, read 4, 0, 1, 2, 3… 8."

Harshal Patel won the purple cap for the second time this year. Has anyone else won it twice? asked Mahendra Sunderam from India
Harshal Patel took 24 wickets for Punjab Kings in this year's IPL, to take the purple cap for the most wickets by a handy margin. Patel also won it in 2021, when he picked up 32 wickets (the joint-most in any IPL season) for Royal Challengers Bangalore.

This award has been shared around quite a lot: since the first IPL in 2008, only two others have won it twice. Bhuvneshwar Kumar did it in successive years for Sunrisers, with 23 wickets in 2016 and 23 in 2017, while Dwayne Bravo topped the tables with 32 in 2013 and 26 in 2015 for Chennai Super Kings.

Turning to the batters, Virat Kohli has won the orange cap for the most runs in the IPL season for the second time; he also came out on top in 2016 with 973 runs, the overall record for any season. Chris Gayle also topped the list twice, for RCB in 2011 and 2012, but David Warner has done it three times (2015, 2017 and 2019, all for Sunrisers). For the overall list of most runs in an IPL season, click here.

Who has been out for a duck most often in Tests? asked Richard Sullivan from England
Top of the pile here is the West Indian fast bowler Courtney Walsh, who was out without scoring in 43 of his 185 innings, 61 of which were not out. Second is Stuart Broad, who was dismissed for nought 39 times (244 innings, 41 not-outs). But the leader in percentage terms, at least among the men with most ducks in Tests, is the New Zealander Chris Martin, who was dismissed 52 times, 36 of those without scoring (he also had a creditable 52 not-outs). Martin also bagged seven pairs in Tests - no-one else has more than four.

Leading the way for ducks in men's ODIs is the prolific Sri Lankan Sanath Jayasuriya with 34, not far ahead of the Pakistan pair of Shahid Afridi (30) and Wasim Akram (28), and Sri Lanka's Mahela Jayawardene (also 28). In T20Is, Ireland's Paul Stirling has so far bagged 13 ducks, ahead of four men with 12.

In women's ODIs, Jhulan Goswami of India collected 18 ducks, while England's Charlotte Edwards had 16. . And in women's T20s, Danni Wyatt of England has to date bagged 17 ducks, four more than Suzie Bates of New Zealand and Malaysia's Winifred Duraisingam.

With the next T20 World Cup tournament fast approaching, who has scored the most runs and taken the most wickets in them over the years? asked Christopher Glass from Australia
The leaders in these two tables are both likely to add to their tallies in the forthcoming T20 World Cup. Virat Kohli leads the way ">for the batters, with 1141. The only other man over 1000 is Mahela Jayawardene (1016). Rohit Sharma goes into the 2024 tournament with 963.

The leading wicket-taker in T20 World Cups is Shakib Al Hasan of Bangladesh, with 47 (like Rohit, Shakib played in all eight previous editions of this tournament). Shahid Afridi comes next with 39, one ahead of Sri Lanka's Lasith Malinga, but the next man on the list who should feature in 2024 is another Sri Lankan, Wanindu Hasaranga, with 31.

I was amazed that the United States beat Bangladesh the other day. Have they ever beaten a Test nation before? asked Jay Morrison from the United States
Before upsetting Bangladesh last week at Prairie View in Houston, Texas, the United States men's team had won 36 previous official internationals - but only one of them was against a Test-playing nation. The USA defeated Ireland by 26 runs in a T20 match in Lauderhill (Florida) in December 2021.

Just to show it was no fluke, the USA followed up their win over Bangladesh by coming out on top in the second game as well, to clinch the series, another first for them against a Test nation.