Check out all the quotes on Tuesday night’s momentous innings by Graham Napier when he struck 152 not out against Sussex Sharks with a record-breaking 16 sixes in the Twenty20 Cup.

Graham Napier
What was your best innings before that?

Going back a long, long way when I was about 12 or 13 I played in a 20-over club game for Colchester against Wivenhoe and scored 150 and retired in about 13 or 14 overs. That would have been up there roughly around the same number of sixes I hit against Sussex. The bizarre thing was that I had an Essex Schools match that same afternoon and got a duck.

And what about this innings?

I had one of those days where everything clicked together and seemed to work. Whatever I tried came off. Even my mis-hits went for six when some days you'd get caught on the boundary. I can't explain how or why it happened but it just came off. The pleasing bit was that virtually every six cleared the boundary by a long way.

You must have been using a decent bat out there?

I used a 2lb 10oz bat. Before the competition I asked Warsop to make me a bat that was bottom-heavy to use at the end of an innings. As it was, I've come in as a pinch-hitter and it seems to be working there too.

What’s been your best day in cricket?

That was, by far, my best day's cricket. The only one that would come close would be a 73 and six for 29 in the old Sunday League (against Worcestershire in August 2001).

Your elevation up the order seems to be working!

I've been given the opportunity to go in (at number three) and I knew after the  last two games when I haven't really scored many runs. But PG (coach Paul Grayson) told me to go out there and do my thing and it worked.

Are you thinking about England now?

I'll take one day as it comes. A TV knock can make a difference but my aim is to play Twenty20 cricket for Essex at the moment.

Graham Gooch
Anyone who was at Chelmsford got entertained last night. In Twenty20 games some of the boundaries can be quite short but most of Graham’s sixes would have cleared any boundary. Graham has always been a clean striker but things haven’t always gone as he’d have liked. Yesterday’s match showed what a talent he can be. I was pleased that he achieved his landmark playing proper cricket shots and hitting the ball cleanly. His innings showed how effective the shot back down the ground can be.

Paul Grayson
That was the best ever display of hitting I’ve seen in a one-day game. I don’t know anyone who hits a ball cleaner than Napes and he might have made himself a few quid tonight (with the possibility of being selected in England’s Twenty20 team).