Sam Northeast struggled to comprehend his ‘special’ day for Glamorgan

Sam Northeast said being thrust into the exalted company of Brian Lara and Sir Donald Bradman was beyond dreams following his historic quadruple hundred for Glamorgan.

In hitting an unbeaten 410 in a stunning innings victory over Leicestershire at Grace Road, the 32-year-old registered the highest score by an Englishman in first-class cricket since the 19th century and placed himself ninth amongst all-comers.

‘Just looking at the list of players who have scored 400 before, there are some greats of the game,’ Northeast told Sportsmail.

Sam Northeast made history by setting the highest first-class score of the 21st century 

‘It was a special day and to top it off with a win makes it a game I will remember forever, for sure.

‘When I came off at lunch, I remember just looking at Matt Maynard, the coach, and thinking: “What has just happened here?” It was beyond my wildest imagination. Even saying it back it doesn’t really seem true. It’s almost fantasy land.’

Northeast’s 450-ball effort began with the visitors struggling at 9-2 and trying to stay in the game rather than dictate terms but moved towards record-breaking territory during a triple century stand with Colin Ingram and concluded in fast forward when he contributed 102 runs on the final morning to provide Glamorgan’s bowlers with two sessions to dismiss Leicestershire.

He went past the magic 400-mark with a six off Roman Walker and then repeated the dose next ball to surpass Graeme Hick’s 405 not out for Worcestershire versus Somerset 34 years ago. That meant Brian Lara’s unbeaten 501 for Warwickshire against Durham in 1994 and the 424 taken by Lancashire’s Archie MacLaren off Somerset in 1895 are the only two larger contributions on English soil.

Glamorgan’s Northeast has 10,839 first-class runs since making his debut back in 2007

According to Northeast, whose previous best in any form of the game was 191, ‘when I was out there, I wasn’t thinking about records at all, apart from at the start of the final morning when I needed two runs to get the highest Glamorgan score.’

But once beyond Steve James’ 309, he said: ‘Then, it was a case of game scenario dictating my innings because we were trying to be proactive, to set up a situation where we could bowl Leicestershire out. We knew the declaration was coming, it was in the best interests of the team and obviously it was timed perfectly in the end.

‘When I first went into bat, circumstances also dictated to me because we were trying to avoid the follow-on and that meant batting a period of time. I just kept rolling with the game.’

Northeast, whose unbroken stand of 461 with Chris Cooke is the second biggest for the sixth wicket in first-class history, was also left to reflect on what a difference a year makes. Last July, he was released by Hampshire and took refuge with temporary deals at Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire before agreeing a permanent move to Wales.

‘The uncertainty of the future was weighing a little bit on me, so to be playing cricket and enjoying it as much as I am shows we found the perfect solution,’ he said.

And after placing his name alongside cricket’s greats, the uncapped former Kent captain admits his international ambitions still flicker.

‘Of course, it crosses your mind. It’s probably been and gone at times but you just never know. It would be a dream of mine to put on an England shirt,’ he said.

‘But the most important thing is to play as well as I can do, win games of cricket for Glamorgan and see what happens. It’s been nice to create something special over the last few days and I will always have that as something I can look back on really fondly and be proud of.’