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."