Sussex’s Ed Joyce on verge of season’s fourth century against Somerset

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/jun/08/sussex-somerset-county-chamnpionship-day-one

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There is no doubt whose wicket is the most coveted when playing Sussex. Ed Joyce, their captain, has already hit three Championship hundreds this summer and at the end of a damp, blustery day, which gave way to dazzling sunshine, he was one run short of his fourth. He is not the sort of man to be dropped and Somerset were left to mull over a missed chance to Craig Kieswetter when he was on 0 and Sussex were shaking at 16 for 2.

Thus Joyce thwarted a Somerset side that have been performing consistently in the Championship this season. It was a calm, classy innings from a batsman who has time. In his current vein, the ball seems to be travelling in slow motion when Joyce is on strike. He waits, watches and pats it away. Or, after due consideration, he leaves it alone. Each shot is a leisurely process. So too is the compilation of an innings.

Joyce was prepared to bide his time. He was even content to play out a maiden, which left him on 99 overnight. It took him 40 balls to score seven runs. He knew that it would get easier and he was prepared to wait, another sign of a confident batsman. Here was an innings from a man at peace with himself, no longer encumbered by the speculation of Test calls (he is now 35 and, in any case, he is Irish again) and enhanced by the captaincy of Sussex.

He batted like an old pro except that there has always been a grace about a Joyce innings, even when he is merely defending; when he attacks he does so without a hint of violence. There were delicate glides on either side of the wicket plus the odd silky drive through the covers and mid-wicket. He was made to work hard for his runs but he seldom gave the impression of labouring. The application of the adjective “Goweresque” to Joyce has never been that fanciful, though Gower was less inclined to graft at county level.

Without him Sussex would have crumbled. In the morning four wickets fell, with the old guard of Alfonso Thomas and Peter Trego to the fore. Thomas struck first, removing Luke Wells, but then Trego held sway. Once a tearaway, Trego has evolved over the years into an increasingly miserly bowler – though fortunately he is still prepared to bat with an unfettered flamboyance. He dispatched Chris Nash and Rory Hamilton-Brown in his opening spell.

Luke Wright, initially becalmed, was just starting to threaten when Trego found his inside edge, which sent the ball dribbling on to the stumps. Then Ben Brown was brilliantly caught at cover by Johann Myburgh, who instinctively stuck out his right hand after a firm drive off Craig Overton. There, to the horror of a crestfallen Brown, the ball remained.

Late in the day, after the rain had intruded, Somerset patiently whittled away at the lower order. Meanwhile Joyce, just as his namesake has often been to generations of English students, remained impenetrable.