Kent veteran and all rounder Darren Stevens branded the current Kent team “one of the strongest squads” he has seen during his time at the club following their innings victory over Sussex in the Bob Willis Trophy earlier this week.

Jordan Cox and Jack Leaning put on an unbeaten 423 for the second wicket for the Spitfires, an all-time club record partnership, helping Kent to 530-1 after their 120 overs before Stevens took his 27^th first class five-wicket haul to help bowl Sussex out for 173, 25 short of making Kent bat again.

“We are in a great position” said Stevens, speaking following the win.

“We have got lads in-form and lads chomping at the bit to get back in the side. For all the years I have been here, it is up there with one of the strongest squads we have had.”

“I am really pleased to see a Kent squad like this.”

The partnership between Cox and Leaning will go down in history. It even came as a surprise for Stevens, who, aged 44, is now in his 16^th season with the club.

“I have never seen anything like it” he said. “Especially at Canterbury”.

“It was exceptional batting. They looked in no trouble, and there was a period where Coxy got hit and it looked like he had been playing for 20 years. He is an exceptional talent and the way he kept batting made it look like he had fifteen hundreds under his belt. We were having a joke because his highest score before that was 29, then suddenly he has got 238!”

“I am so pleased for Jack too; he is the new boy and he has come down with a lot of hype, but he has fitted in brilliantly. He beat himself up missing out against Essex but getting the opportunity here he did not look back and did not look in any trouble at all.”

“I know they are only out there 120 overs, but they put them under the pump straight away. Deebz [Daniel Bell-Drummond] looked good and then Jordan and Jack played unbelievably. They were going at four and a bit an over, and it was hot.”

“I asked Sam (Billings) if I could put my hand up for nightwatchman towards the end of Sunday! He was having none of it. He asked me later on Monday if I wanted to pad up, but I said I was getting ready to bowl and I needed all my energy for bowling.”

Stevens was set to leave Kent at the end of last year but ended up signing a new contract. He has impressed again so far this season, taking eight wickets from the first two games at 23.75 apiece.

“It was not a typical Canterbury wicket” said Stevens, beaming after his five-for.

“It was a good batting pitch, but we thought it had a good covering of grass and from full of a length there was enough going on. I thrive on a challenge. When someone is coming hard at me on a batter friendly pitch brings the best out of me.”

“We thought they bowled too short and when we looked back at our first innings we were slightly shorter than where we wanted to be, so that was the thing we took out of the first innings and into the second innings.”

“It feels a little bit like a pre-season game. Nobody is sitting in the stands watching, but it is a legit game and it feels amazing to be out there playing. I missed it a lot.”