Sam Northeast has entered an exclusive group of cricketers to pass 400 runs in a single innings after hitting 410 not out for Glamorgan in an English County Championship match.
He didn’t get a chance to challenge Brian Lara’s world-record individual score of 501 — set in 1994 while playing for Warwickshire, also in an English county match — because Glamorgan chose to declare on 5-795 against Leicestershire.
Northeast, a 32-year-old right-handed batter, hit 45 fours and three sixes in his 450-ball knock. It is the highest individual score this century in elite-level cricket, surpassing Lara’s Test-record 400 not out for West Indies against England in 2004, and the ninth highest of all time.
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Only eight players had previously ever made 400 or more in first-class cricket.
“I guess it’s something which you always strive for in your career but never in my wildest imagination did I ever think I was going to end up on 410 not out and join some unbelievable names,” Northeast said after his stunning knock.
“The list of players: Lara, Hick, Bradman … To join that list is, as I said, beyond my wildest imagination really. It’s been a crazy few days.”
Like Lara, Australian batter Bill Ponsford passed the 400 mark on two occasions, when playing for the state of Victoria in the 1920s.
Northeast’s knock was the fourth 400-plus score in the English county game, after Lara, Archie MacLaren (424) in 1895 and Graeme Hick (405) in 1988.
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