CricTrivia

What is the longest a team has carried on using an old ball before asking for a new one?

The record for the most overs bowled with the same ball in a Test is usually given as 177, by West Indies against New Zealand in Wellington in 1986-87.Wisden said at the time: "[Viv] Richards, without two of his main bowlers, declined to change the ball, which had been in use for 177 overs when [Jeremy] Coney declared at tea. No Test innings had seen so many overs bowled with the same ball." However, the Melbourne statistician Charles Davis later unearthed a report in the Barbados Advocate on the third Test between West Indies and India in Bridgetown in 1961-62 - about the innings in which offspinner Lance Gibbsreturned the astonishing figures of 53.3-37-38-8 - that suggests Frank Worrell did not take a new ball during India's second innings of 187, which occupied 185.3 overs, which would be the record if correct.

Dale Steyn currently has 211 Test wickets, and no fewer than 47 of them were batsmen out for ducks. Where does he stand on the all-time list, and has anyone bettered his percentage? 

Dale Steyn has indeed dismissed 47 batsmen for ducks in Test so far, out of a total of 211, a percentage of 22.27%. There are 20 bowlers who have inflicted more Test ducks, but none of them has a percentage as high as Steyn's - the next-best is 21.49% (49 out of 228 wickets), by Australia's Ray Lindwall. The best duck-hunter among Test bowlers is Glenn McGrath, who inflicted 104 zeroes, just ahead of Muttiah Muralitharan and Shane Warne, the only others in three figures, with 102 apiece.