Sam Northeast entered a special group of cricketers to score 400 runs in an innings by scoring an unbeaten 410 for Glamorgan in an English County Championship match on Saturday. He did not get a chance to challenge Brian Lara’s world-record individual score of 501 – playing for Warwickshire in 1994, also in an English county match – as Glamorgan decided to declare at 795–5 against Leicestershire.
The 32-year-old right-handed batsman NorthEast hit 45 fours and three sixes in his 450-ball knock. It is the highest individual score of this century in elite level cricket, surpassing Lara’s Test-record 400 against West Indies. England in 2004, and the ninth highest ever.
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Sam Northeast 4⃣0⃣0⃣ . Be the first Glamorgan player to reach
, It also brings 450 partnerships! I
, https://t.co/F3GGp6mm3i#LEIvGLAM , #goglam pic.twitter.com/DFrFk15QUW
— Glamorgan Cricket (@GlamCricket) 23 July 2022
Only eight players had ever made 400 or more in first-class cricket. Like Lara, Australian batsman Bill Ponsford crossed the 400 mark on two occasions while playing for Victoria State in the 1920s.
NorthEast’s knock was the fourth 400-plus score in an English county game, after Lara, Archie McLaren (424) in 1895 and Graeme Hick (405) in 1988.