Stevens has Durham on hop with a winning one-legged assault

After throttling the Durham innings by taking three for 15 to restrict them to 203, Stevens thrashed an unbeaten 85 batting for most of his innings virtually on one leg.

He was on 25 when he suffered a groin injury and could continue only with a runner. But he swung the bat to such effect that he cracked 13 fours and a six in scoring his runs off only 59 balls.

He shared a crucial sixth-wicket stand of 60 with Geraint Jones and Kent got home with seven balls to spare.

Until Stevens' muck-or-nettles approach paid off Durham had looked like making it three wins out of three in division two's top-of-the-table clash, despite under-achieving with the bat.

After choosing to bat, they were racing along at 84 for two after 15 overs when Shivnarine Chanderpaul's run-a-ball 37 ended when he tried to sweep off-spinner James Tredwell's first ball and was bowled.

A stand of 61 in 11 overs between Michael Di Venuto and Dale Benkenstein still promised a total well in excess of 200, but then Di Venuto became Tredwell's second victim and Stevens' medium pace wobblers saw him take two for seven in his first four overs.

Di Venuto sliced a drive to backward point after making his first one-day half-century for Durham and Garry Park made only two before edging Stevens to wicketkeeper Jones.

Durham fielded the side expected to take the field in Saturday's Friends Provident Trophy final, except that Paul Collingwood will come in for either Park or Kyle Coetzer, with Gordon Muchall also in the frame.

Park was preferred to Muchall yesterday but both he and Coetzer failed to press their claims, with the Scot edging a drive to slip as Yasir Arafat picked up two wickets to reduce Durham to 13 for two.

The pakistani paceman also bowled Phil Mustard for four when the left-hander went for a forcing off-side shot.

Chanderpaul ensured that Durham quickly put their poor start behind them, taking 18 off an over from seamer Simon Cook, then Benkenstein also scored freely until Di Venuto's exit.

At that point the captain was starved of the strike and he added only 12 runs, mainly in singles, between the 27th and 36th overs before driving Stevens to long-on. Benkenstein hit three fours and a six in his 67-ball innings.

With wickets continuing to fall, Durham were all out with two balls unused after adding only 53 runs from the final ten overs.

Kent quickly fell behind the required rate as Rob Key played across a full-length ball and was bowled by Liam Plunkett, whose first five overs cost only five runs.

When Steve Harmison came on his first five overs were also reasonably tight as he continues his build-up for Lord's after his hernia operation. But he suffered from Stevens' flailing bat when he returned for two overs towards the end.

This was in complete contrast to Kent's early struggles.

Opener Joe Denly took 51 balls to score 13 before edging Ottis Gibson to slip, and after being moved up the order in search of acceleration Cook lasted just four balls before he drove Gibson straight to cover, where Benkenstein took a good low catch.

Martin van Jaarsveld and Matt Walker moved the score along to 71 before the Spitfires lost their fourth wicket.

Van Jaarsveld had scored 26 when he chipped Harmison to mid-wicket, where he was caught by Gareth Breese, then Walker sliced to backward point, also for 26, with the Spitfires on 101 for five.

That brought in Jones to join Stevens and they got the target down to 43 from 41 balls before Jones sliced to Harmison for 17 off Breese.

Then Ryan McLaren was bowled round his legs for three by Breese with Kent still needing 31 for victory.

Breese continued his good one-day form with three for 31 and can be sure of his place at Lord's, even though he has been short of runs recently.

But the two men who had done most to keep Durham's innings in check saw the hosts home, with Tredwell striking the winning runs.