Kent captain Rob Key admitted Darren Stevens had made the difference for Kent in their Twenty20 Cup win over Warwickshire.
Stevens admits plan went perfectly after firing Spitfires to glory
Kent captain Rob Key admitted Darren Stevens had made the difference for Kent in their Twenty20 Cup win over Warwickshire.
The all-rounder hit six fours and five sixes to make a crucial 69 for the Spitfires after they had been struggling at 98-5 in the quarter-final tie.
His innings at Edgbaston helped the visitors get up to 175-6 from their 20 overs, a total that proved too much for the Bears.
Stevens completed a fine all-round display by picking up 2-29, Warwickshire finishing up well short on 133-8 as Kent sealed a return trip to finals day.
Serious innings
"It was pretty tough out there, at one stage it really looked like we were struggling," Key told Sky
Sports News. "They probably had the better of the conditions; it probably did a bit more when we batted.
"But Darren Stevens played a serious innings. I thought that 130 would mean we were in the game but 175 was always going to be too many."
Kent are the defending champions in the competition and are now just two wins away from become the first county to ever retain the trophy.
Although Key is refusing to get too carried away by talk of back-to-back titles, he does believe his side can get even better.
"The thing with Twenty20 is it depends on who pitches up on the day," he added. "We've got two more games to win but we're not in the final yet.
"The good thing is we've still got players to come good, players who haven't played as well as they can in Twenty20."
Plan
Stevens helped Kent score 99 from their last six overs, something the former Leicestershire player had planned to do from the moment he arrived at the crease.
"There was a bit of a brisk breeze out there and our main game plan was to wait until the end because we'd lost wickets early," he said.
"We were trying to knock it around in the middle of the innings, ran hard and wait until the last five or six overs with wickets in hand and try and hit with the breeze."
