Joyce has fond memories of Aussies

The Sussex players lining up against the world champions today will be largely unfamiliar to the Australians.

But Ricky Ponting and Co. might remember Ed Joyce, especially as he is the last Englishman to score a hundred against them.

Well, that’s not strictly true. Joyce was born in Dublin and actually played for both Ireland and England during the 2007 World Cup, gaining his English qualification on the day he helped Ireland reach the finals in the Caribbean.

A few months before the tournament came what Joyce still regards as one of the highlights of his career when he made 107 in the first match of the one-day series in Sydney.

Wisden described it as an innings “full of clean stroke play and clear thinking.”

Joyce said: “I remember it very well and in terms of career highlights it has to be right up there.

“I was dropped early on but played very well after that. It was one of those days – everything I tried paid off and when Liam Plunkett bowled Adam Gilchrist with the first ball of the reply I knew we were going to win. It was meant to be.”

England went on to win their first one-day series in Australia for 20 years and it gave them some revenge after what had gone on earlier in the tour when, two years after regaining the Ashes, England lost them again after Ponting’s men dished out a 5-0 hiding.

Joyce is not alone among the team which silenced a 30,000 crowd in Sydney that day who has subsequently slipped off England’s radar.

Wicketkeeper Paul Nixon was always regarded as a short-term selection but Joyce opened with Mal Loye while James Dalrymple, Monty Panesar as well as Plunkett all played and Ravi Bopara – now an integral part of the England side in all formats – made his debut.

Joyce struggled to reach those standards again after Sydney. In five subsequent one-day innings against Test-playing nations he failed to score more than 30 and although he played in the World Cup in the Caribbean his best scores were against minnows Canada (66) and Kenya (75).

After helping Ireland qualify with two hundreds and three fifties he did not even have the satisfaction of making runs against them in the Super Eights, when he scored just one.

He has played in 14 ODIs but since touring India under Sussex captain Mike Yardy with England Lions in 2008 he has been ignored by the selectors.

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