ALL-ROUNDER FRUSTRATED BY ONE-DAY CUP CAMPAIGN

“I wouldn’t say it was the innings of my life, I’ve played a couple of nice knocks but it was a good one.

“I basically had free rein to do what I wanted. I just kept going and going. I reined it in a little bit when we were on top but it was just a shame how I got out.

“I thought I hit it well enough to go, I turned for two and I looked round and he was on the floor with the ball in his hands.”

The 15-run loss was Kent’s sixth in seven games in the competition and Stevens admitted: “If we look back, we’ve been so close in all our games.

“We’ve just not had the rub of the green. The first few games we got done by the rain. We were just the wrong side of all the games. It’s been a bit frustrating. Every game we sit down, our plans have been good but with the bat and the ball we’ve just not quite executed them how we wanted to.

“That sums up our one-day tournament. Looking back, we probably didn’t need to take that run on when the final wicket went down. It was disappointing. I backed Treddy to get us over the line.”

Stevens’ knock was the latest in a string of blistering centuries from Kent players in the past three weeks.

Alex Blake brought up his first List A century in a 46-ball blitz at Taunton on his way to posting an incredible 116 from 58 balls in a losing effort at Somerset, while Daniel Bell-drummond has twice reached three figures in the ill-fated group stage. Stevens – who was rested for yesterday (Wednesday’s) final Royal London One-day Cup group match against Essex – feels he is in good form with the bat ahead of a return to Championship cricket at his old club Leicestershire on Friday.

He said: “I’ve been a bit disappointed with the bat. I felt like I should have got more runs.

“The last few years I feel like I’ve let myself down a little bit, yes I’m bowling more overs and it takes it out of you but I still feel as a cricketer I’m a batsman who bowls a little bit.

“It gets me down when I don’t get my runs so I set out this winter with Matt Walker and we came up with a plan, worked on a few things and I feel in good nick.”