As Glamorgan prepare to take on Sussex for the fifth time this season, all eyes will be on the visitors\' prolific opening batsman Ed Joyce, who is homing in on 1,000 Championship runs for the season.
Joyce, the 37-year-old Ireland (and former England) opening batsman has enjoyed a renaissance in the Specsavers County Championship, averaging 73.46 in 10 matches and dominating almost every bowling attack he has faced.
His century versus Glamorgan at Hove last month went under the radar because Luke Wells and Ben Brown also hit big tons, but Joyce has passed fifty in nine of his 14 innings in the competition so far. Abandoning white-ball cricket to focus on the long form of the game – as Joyce has done this season – has certainly borne fruit.
Joyce has an enviable record at first-class and List A level. The Dublin-born batsman has racked up 17,791 first-class runs over a career spanning almost two decades and enjoyed a taste of top-level international cricket during his short stint with England in 2006 and 2007.
It didn't quite go to plan for Joyce in the blue and white of England but his return to representing Ireland, plus a move to the South Coast from Middlesex, reignited his career and the runs began to flow again.
The 37-year-old has hit 45 centuries in his first-class career and will be hoping for another three-figure score to keep alive Sussex's faint hopes of achieving promotion back to Division One of the County Championship this season. He has scored 955 runs in Division Two, behind only Kent's Sam Northeast, Derbyshire's Wayne Madsen and Nick Browne of Essex.
Both Sussex and Glamorgan are in need of victory in their four-day encounter, which begins tomorrow (Tuesday) at 11am at The SSE SWALEC.
Ed Joyce In Numbers
First-class matches – 264
First-class average – 48.34
First-class runs – 17791
ODIs – 63
ODI average (for England & Ireland) – 37.67