After Brian Lara’s 501 in 1994, Sam Northeast hits 410 in County Championship

Sam Northeast on Saturday (July 23) 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 795-5 against Leicestershire.

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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.

Only eight players had previously ever made 400 or more in first-class cricket.

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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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Cooke’s 191 not out was somewhat overshadowed by his partner’s achievements. Colin Ingram (139) had also scored a century of his own on day three, when Northeast finished unbeaten on 308 overnight.

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He continued to flay the Foxes’ bowling attack on the fourth morning, making the highest individual score in Glamorgan history and becoming the Welsh county’s first player to reach 400.