Durham's Gay makes first century of 2026 against Kent

Emilio Gay struck 22 fours in his innings of 128 [Getty Images] Rothesay County Championship, Division Two, Banks Homes Riverside (day 1) Durham 335: Gay 128; Dudgeon 4-83 Kent 50-2: Northeast 19*; Potts 1-7 Kent (3 pts) trail Durham (2 pts) by 285 runs Match scorecard Emilio Gay made the first century of the County Championship season as Durham edged ahead of Kent on a closely contested first day of their Division Two match. Gay was fluent and positive in a chanceless century, his 11th in first-class cricket, on a day when his team-mates struggled to cope with Kent's impressive overseas duo, Glenton Stuurman and Keith Dudgeon. Durham were bowled out for 335, with Dudgeon picking up four scalps and Stuurman three on his Kent debut.

Kent's reply got off to a bad start, with England's Zak Crawley dismissed cheaply, and they finished the day on 50-2, trailing by 285 runs. Durham were put into bat by Kent under the lights on an overcast Good Friday and the visitors made an excellent start as Stuurman got Ben McKinney lbw for eight. After the early loss skipper Alex Lees looked to carefully accumulate while in the crease.

Gay then joined him and dispatched Joey Evison's first ball, a full toss, to the legside boundary. Lees continued to tick along nicely but South African Dudgeon removed the Durham captain for 29, with him edging to Crawley at first slip. That brought Durham's talisman David Bedingham to the crease and he got off the mark with a lovely four through the covers and he backed that up with a cut to the boundary from Dudgeon's next ball.

However, Dudgeon struck back as he got one to nip away from Bedingham and the Durham man edged it straight to Crawley at slip for 12. Gay continued to look in good touch and passed fifty before lunch from 68 balls. Graham Clark at the opposite end then joined Gay in the boundary-scoring and their budding partnership passed 100.