Evergreen county cricketer Darren Stevens has shown age is just a number, dominating play against a Glamorgan side featuring Australian representatives Marnus Labuschagne and Michael Neser. 

On a cold and windy day at St Lawrence Ground in Canterbury, the 45-year-old launched an incredible counterattack for Kent, hitting 190 runs after his side slumped to five for 80, belting them to a score of 294 before being dismissed by Labuschagne’s part-time leg-spin. 

Coming in at number seven, Stevens started his innings carefully before going on to club 15 sixes and 15 fours in his 149-ball knock. 

In a 166-run stand with Miguel Cummins, the West Indies fast bowler scored only one run as Stevens hogged the strike in a partnership that eclipsed even Ben Stokes’s effort with Jack Leach at Headingly in the 2019 Ashes. 

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“We were in a tough situation,” he told Kent Cricket’s website after the day’s play.

“All I was worried about was trying to hit a boundary the first three balls [of each over] and then get off strike.”

The innings saw Stevens break the record for the most sixes in a first-class innings by a player aged 40 or over, according to cricket statistician Andrew Samson.

Stevens was also credited with the highest first-class partnership in which one batsman scored more than 90 per cent of the runs.

Still destructive with the ball too

After his side was eventually all out for 307, the wily veteran then returned with the ball late in the afternoon to dismiss Labuschagne lbw, for the second time this season.

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It marks a season to forget so far for Australia’s Test number three, who has scored only 44 runs in his five county innings so far.

Stevens also got the better of former Australian Test batsman Travis Head in Kent’s match against Sussex earlier this month, bowling him out for 20 as he picked up three wickets for 64 off 22 economical overs. 

In his 25th season of county cricket, Stevens’s medium pacers have so far brought him 19 wickets at an average of 20.2 runs a wicket.

It is the sort of consistency that saw him win Wisden’s illustrious Cricketer of the Year award in April, making him the oldest player since 1933 to do so. 

After struggling with the bat since a century in early April, Stevens thinks his swashbuckling 190 will now prompt some of his younger teammates to take more notice of him.

“There’s a few young faces, newcomers to the side that have not seen me play as well and there were a few rumours flying around about how I do play.

“They were just really pleased to actually see it and I’m pleased to perform and get us in a great position.”

Barmy Army backs Stevens for Ashes 

England’s cricket supporters club, the Barmy Army, has even pushed for Stevens’s selection for the Ashes at the end of the year, tweeting “get him on the plane” next to an Australian flag.

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Despite never playing for England’s Test side, Stevens did tour Australia as part of a National Academy squad in 2002 and does still have cricketing contacts in Australia. 

“I get a lot of messages from people all around the world,” Stevens told British website inews.co.uk in April. 

“I played a bit of cricket in Australia and a lot of Australians in their early 40s and late 30s who are thinking about retiring get in touch and say, ‘If it wasn’t for you I would be hanging them up, but if you can do it we all can.’

“It’s too easy to discard a sportsman as soon as they get to a certain age but if your body is still up to it then why not carry on? I think we 100 per cent need to rethink that mindset.”



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