Surrey v Kent

Kent batsman Darren Stevens underwent an operation to have his broken nose re-set this morning and is determined to play in Kent's second Twenty20 Cup qualifier this evening at the Brit Oval.

The right-hander from Leicestershire was hit on the helmet grille by Sussex pace bowler Luke Wright in Wednesday night's gloomy conditions and x-rays later revealed a bade break.

However, Stevens has had the fracture treated in Canterbury and wants to line up against the Surrey Browncaps from 5.30pm tonight.

He said: "One side of my nose had caved in and it needed to be re-set, so I had anaesthetic swabs up my nose and a couple of injections then the surgeon put pliers up my nose and popped it back into place.

"I asked him first 'will it hurt?' and he said 'yes you'll feel it' and I certainly did. The least I'll say is that it made my eyes water!

"The doctors don't particularly want me to play tonight, but of course I won't be playing football in the warm-ups in case someone bumps into me, but there's very little chance of it happening again when batting."

Stevens explained that it wasn't the ball coming through the helmet grille that caused the injury, but the force of the delivery from Wright that pushed the plastic rim of his helmet into his nose.

He added: "I've spoken to Luke today and he's wished me all the best. The problem was it was so dark out there.

"The ball before hit me on the gloves and I didn't see that one either.

"It's something we'll have to take into account on these cloudy days because batting second in that light was no fun at all."

With Stevens determined to play, Kent's only likely change to the side that beat the Sharks by six wickets would be in the bowling department.

On the quicker Kennington pitches, either Robbie Joseph or Amjad Khan seem more likely to feature at the possible expense of medium-pacer Simon Cook.

Kent from: Key, Denly, van Jaarsveld, Kemp, Stevens, Jones, Mahmood, McLaren, Arafat, Tredwell, Khan, Cook, Joseph.