Kent all-rounder Darren Stevens wants more Twenty20 glory
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by Mike Rees
Darren Stevens seems a man on a
mission this season as Kent look to lift the Twenty20 Cup for the
second time in three years.
The 33-year-old broke a finger in his
left hand after being hit by South African paceman Garnett Kruger
on the opening day of Kent's Championship game against Glamorgan at
Canterbury on May 6.
The injury saw Stevens miss the
next five games of Kent's Friends Provident campaign and it was no
coincidence that the Spitfires failed to make the quarter-final
stage.
Stevens, in his fifth season with
Kent after signing from Leicestershire, was "gutted" about being
ruled out for three weeks and said: "It was a freak accident. I
have been lucky with injuries until the last three years.
"The last couple of seasons I had
problems with my groins but I have lost a little weight and now my
groins feel good.
"I was gutted to miss the Friends
Provident games because I feel I have played a key middle order
role during my time at Kent."
His first match back after
injury was the second game of Kent's Twenty20 campaign away to
Middlesex at Lord's.
It was the first game played under
the new floodlights and Stevens celebrated his return to the side
with a 26-ball unbeaten 59 which helped the Spitfires to an
impressive 62-run win.
His innings included 10 fours and a
six and Stevens said: "It is always special to play at Lord's but
it was especially great under the lights. It was one of those
knocks for me and I felt good."
Stevens has hit four half centuries
in his nine Twenty20 innings to date this season and his 271 runs
at an average of 67 sees him third in the national averages.
He was plesantly surprised when
told of his lofty position but he was keen to stress: "Winning
matches is more important than personal averages. Don't get me
wrong, I would love to bat for 20 overs but my role is to bat in
the middle order and get us over the line.
"We have a strong batting order
with the likes of Joe, Rob, Jarra and Geraint and the good thing is
that Azhar (Mahmood) and Kempy are hardly batting.
"It is a great feeling winning
games and even better lifting titles."
And celebrating Twenty20 titles is
something Stevens - the only player to win the competition with two
different clubs - is familiar with after his success with
Leicestershire in 2004 and 2007 with Kent when his unbeaten 30 saw
the Spitfires to victory over Gloucestershire at Edgbaston.
Stevens will be hoping for a return
to Birmingham on Saturday, August 15 for this year's finals day but
acknowledges Kent first have to beat an experienced Durham
Dynamos outfit in the quarer-finals at Canterbury on Monday, July
27.
"It should be an entertaining
game," Stevens added. "Durham have a lot of experience in Twenty20
cricket and are a good all-round side.
"They are a good fielding side and
have Liam Plunkett - who took six wickets in an innings against
Worcestershire this week - and Steve Harmison - but we fancy our
chances if we play how we can and have been."
Thursday, July 02 2009
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