RESULT
Leeds, September 16 - 19, 2019, Specsavers County Championship Division One
482/8d & 337/7d
(T:551) 269 & 117

Kent won by 433 runs

Report

Darren Stevens seals a match for the ages as Kent condemn Yorkshire to mammoth defeat

At 43, Stevens is the second-oldest player to score 200 and take five wickets in an innings in a first-class match after W.G. Grace

The evergreen Darren Stevens appeals for a wicket  •  Getty Images

The evergreen Darren Stevens appeals for a wicket  •  Getty Images

Kent 482 for 8 dec (Stevens 237, Billings 138, Olivier 5-108) and 337 for 7 dec (Billings 122*, Robinson 97) beat Yorkshire 269 (Fisher 47*, Milnes 5-87) and 117 (Stevens 5-20) by 433 runs
Darren Stevens claimed a five-wicket haul as Kent put the finishing touches on a record-breaking 433-run victory over Yorkshire at Headingley and kept alive their hopes of finishing third on the County Championship Division One table.
Yorkshire, chasing a target of 551 - a world record had they achieved it - started day four in tatters at 44 for 6, and they were bowled out for 117 shortly before lunch.
It was Kent's biggest victory in terms of runs in their first-class history and Yorkshire's heaviest runs defeat. It was also the fourth-heaviest in the history of the County Championship.
Kent claimed a maximum 24 points from their fifth win of the season and moved up to fourth on the table, two points behind third-placd Hampshire. The two sides meet for a final-round clash at Canterbury next week.
Yorkshire's fourth defeat of the campaign yielded five points and saw them slip from third at the start of the week to fifth. They are 10 points behind Hampshire, having suffered their second successive defeat, and end the season against Warwickshire at Edgbaston. All final-round fixtures start on Monday.
Stevens, with four wickets overnight, claimed his fifth in the second over of the morning when he had Tim Bresnan caught behind. In claiming his 50th Championship wicket of the season. Felllow Kent seamers Matt Milnes and Harry Podmore also reached the 50-wicket mark for the season in Yorkshire's first innings.
Top-scorer Jonny Tattersall and Matthew Fisher held Kent up by sharing 35 inside 17 overs before Podmore had the latter brilliantly caught behind one-handed diving to his right by Ollie Robinson as Yorkshire fell to 81 for 8. Another spell of defiance came as Tattersall and Duanne Olivier united to put on 35 runs before Daniel Bell-Drummond bowled the latter.
That wicket came as lunch was extended in an attempt to finish the game, and it was when Bell-Drummond had Tattersall caught at second slip for 41 in the next over.
A number of notable records were posted in this match.
Stevens' 237 on the first day helped him become only the fifth player in history to score a double hundred and take 10 wickets in first-class cricket beyond the age of 43 after Stevens took 10 wickets in last week's win at Nottinghamshire. W.G. Grace is on that list, as is former Kent allrounder Frank Woolley, who achieved the feat in the 1930s.
Stevens, aged 43 years and 142 days, is the second-oldest player to score 200 and take five wickets in an innings in a first-class match. Grace is the oldest having done it for Gloucestershire in 1895 aged 46 years and 303 days. Here, Stevens finished with 5 for 20 from 18 overs in the second innings and claimed match figures of 7 for 70 from 38.
"I've just seen that (stat on W.G. Grace), only because Mitch (Claydon) was taking the mickey saying we look pretty similar," Stevens said. "I was very tired this morning, and I was praying for that early wicket. Luckily it came. To be fair, I was pretty done in after that spell last night, 13 overs. But the early wicket got me going.
"I can't really put it into words. If you'd have asked me at the start of the season, I would have said that I'll have a decent year, but not like this.
"It was a bit frustrating early season with a few catches going down, and it didn't really happen with the bat. Then, the last part of the summer has been pretty special. A lot of hard work's gone in, and it's starting to pay off now."
Stevens shared 346 with captain Sam Billings in the first innings to help Kent recover from 39 for 5 to 482 for 8 declared, their partnership being the highest for the sixth wicket at Headingley.
Billings hit 138 and 122 not out, becoming the first man to score two hundreds in a Championship game at Headingley and the first Kent player to post two hundreds in the same fixture since Martin van Jaarsveld did it in 2008.

AskESPNcricinfo Logo
Instant answers to T20 questions
Yorkshire Innings
<1 / 3>
Specsavers County Championship Division One
TEAMMWLDPT
ESSEX14914228
SOM14932217
HANTS14536176
KENT14554172
YORKS14545165
SURR14266133
WARKS14365131
NOTTS14010467