Perhaps Darren Stevens’ favourite present for his 40th birthday on Saturday was the end of his run drought.

Stevens claimed he felt better than ever with the bat early in pre-season and was keen to banish the memory of 2015 – one of the most disappointing batting seasons of his career.

The all-rounder scored just 635 runs in 15 matches at an average of under 28 last season, with 158 runs coming from his final two innings of the summer.

It was the first season since 2001 that Stevens had not registered a red ball century.

Despite the strong start to the campaign, Stevens ended pre-season with a duck in the final friendly against Durham and followed it up with another in the First Class warm-up against Loughborough MCCU.

After the wash-out at Worcester, Stevens made it three straight noughts when he departed in the draw at former club Leicestershire.

However, on Monday, he returned to form, making 58 from 63 balls including four fours and three sixes.

He said: “I was pleased to get some runs, particularly after going nought, nought, nought. The funny thing is I had been scratching about.

“I was outside having a hit with (assistant coach Matt Walker) and it wasn’t really working.

“We went inside into the nets and it still wasn’t clicking, so in the end I just said, let’s forget it and just had a striking session – it seemed to work pretty well.”