Sam Northeast created history when he struck a magnificent unbeaten 410 for Glamorgan in the County Championship, joining the likes of Brian Lara and Sir Donald Bradman in the record books.
Northeast's innings was the third-highest score in the history of the competition and the ninth-highest score in all first-class cricket. West Indies legend Lara remains at the top of the tree though, having scored a mammoth 501 for Warwickshire against Durham in 1994.
Northeast was denied the chance to try and break Lara's record when captain David Lloyd declared at lunch on the final day of the match, but the 32-year-old has revealed that Glamorgan coach Matt Maynard offered him the opportunity to continue batting.
Speaking to RSN Radio, Northeast said: "Matt Maynard, our coach, came and said 'If you want to go for it, then do it. We have got a game to win here, but I understand you are never going to get an opportunity to break the record'.
"We sort of agreed as a team that wasn't going to be the case. A lot of my mates were saying 'stuff the team, go and get Lara's record'
"But at no stage did I think we weren't going to declare and I was going to go for the record." And the decision proved to be the right one, with Glamorgan bowling Leicestershire out for just 183 to earn a stunning innings victory.
Northeast's previous highest score was 191 and he admitted that becoming just the tenth player to ever score 400 runs in a single innings was "beyond my wildest imagination". He told the Daily Mail : "Just looking at the list of players who have scored 400 before, there are some greats of the game.
"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."
It is Northeast's first season at Glamorgan, having left Hampshire last year after falling out of favour, and he admits his future "looked quite uncertain" for a while. "It was probably a time where I didn't quite know where the future was and it all looked quite uncertain," he told ESPNcricinfo.
"To have found a really good home at Glamorgan and be enjoying my cricket again, I couldn't be happier at the moment. I just hope everything keeps going on an upward trajectory. We won and we're in the hunt for promotion, which is fantastic.
"Hopefully [there are] more good times ahead for me and Glamorgan cricket." And he has also not given up on playing for England one day, adding: "At 32 I still believe that time is on my side to a certain degree.
"I would love to [play for England], so hopefully I can keep up putting numbers on the board. I don’t expect to get 400 every week, but if I can be consistent and score some more runs by the end of the season I would like to put myself in the mix."
