Darren Stevens has cult following but 45-year-old is still underappreciated | Jonathan Liew

The Kent all-rounder is beloved by many followers of English cricket but also unfairly cited by others as a symptom of its ills

As with so much else in his life, fame came late in the day to Darren Stevens. The Kent all-rounder’s extraordinary innings of 190 against Glamorgan last Friday created a very modern sort of buzz, one that has really been possible only in recent years. For decades, an innings like Stevens’s would have existed largely in the imagination: a blur of numbers on a screen and two columns in the newspaper, rather than an actual lived memory. Now, via social media and the miracle of the YouTube livestream – hey, psst, stop what you’re doing and watch this – it can live in plain sight.

And what an innings it was: remarkable not so much for its technical excellence (he was dropped three times) but for its sheer, sleeves-up, bollocks-to-you audacity. Michael Neser, a 90mph Australian international seamer, is smashed over his head. Andrew Salter, a lovely classical off-spinner, has resigned himself to being hit for six before he even delivers the ball. At the other end, Miguel Cummins shares a ninth-wicket partnership of 166 in which his own contribution is one.

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