Kent Cricket all-rounder Darren Stevens admits he would have liked to have scored more runs in LV= County Championship Division 2 this season
Published: 12:00, 17 September 2015
All-rounder Darren Stevens has admitted to disappointment after finishing a championship season centuryless for the first time in 14 years.
The 39-year-old has enjoyed a career-best year with the ball in LV= County Championship Division 2 with last week’s return of 7-101 in the huge win at Glamorgan taking him to 61 wickets for the season.
However, his form with the bat this summer has not matched the past two seasons, during which he scored more than 2,200 runs in four-day cricket.
Stevens did reach three-figures in the Royal London One-Day Cup and scored 399 runs in limited overs cricket this term, however the popular all-rounder ended the championship campaign with 635 runs in his 23 innings with the red ball.
Stevens has 25 Championship centuries for Kent and has reached three-figures every year since 2001 when he was at Leicestershire but his score of 92 at home to Lancashire earlier this month remained his highest of the season.
He was denied one last chance to reach three figures when Kent's final championship game of the season against Gloucestershire at Canterbury was abandoned as a draw on the final day.
Stevens said: “I’m a little disappointed in myself. I’ve not got as many runs as I’d like but I suppose that’s part and parcel of the game.
"The (bowling) workload was a little bit much but it was worth it, 60-odd poles, I’d take that. For the first time ever, though, I suppose I’d swap 10 of those wickets for a hundred.”
Stevens is a perennial challenger for the PCA’s MVP title and, for the second straight year, finished runner-up, behind Durham’s Chris Rushworth.
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Alex Hoad