Joyce century spearheads Sussex response

Ed Joyce’s sixth Championship century of the season guided Sussex to a slender lead of 21 runs at the end of the second day of their match with Lancashire at Hove.

In scoring 137 the Irish international passed 1,000 runs for the season as Sussex closed on 341/7 with James Anderson (2-58) and Glen Chapple (2-66) inflicting late damage to put the match back in the balance.

Joyce shared a 156-run stand with Chris Nash (67) for the second-wicket partnership, after Anderson removed Luke Wells for no score with only the third ball of the day. Craig Cachopa (50) also made a half-century, sharing a partnership worth 90 runs for the third-wicket as he and Joyce made Lancashire struggle for most of the afternoon.

Lancashire recovered well towards the end of the day, claiming five wickets for 56 runs, but Sussex ended Day Two with the greater cause for celebration with a lead of 21 runs.

When Wells edged the third ball of the day to Jos Buttler, the hosts would have felt that Anderson was in for one of his better days, but this was to be a brief moment of elation for Lancashire in an otherwise frustrating session.

Sussex entered lunch with both Joyce and Nash on 53, the latter reaching fifty in 79 deliveries. Joyce soon followed suit, passing 1,000 Championship runs in 2014 with a half-century of his own, taking 88 balls to do so.

The pair also reached the hundred partnership before the lunchtime interval, leaving Lancashire with little cause for optimism. Their onslaught continued into the afternoon session, before Simon Kerrigan (1-68) forced Nash to chip the ball to Chapple at mid-on with the score at 157/2.

Joyce sustained his fluent innings beyond the loss of Nash, now joined by Cachopa, who played a much more aggressive innings. Their diverging approaches worked wonders for the hosts as Sussex added 130 runs in the afternoon session, dejecting the Lancashire bowlers further.

A fantastic session for Sussex was capped-off by Joyce reaching his hundred in 144 balls and Lancashire failed to take their only opportunity of the session when Buttler failed to stump Cachopa on 25.

Cachopa capitlised on this error and matched the efforts of Joyce, reaching his fourth fifty in five innings in 88 balls, before he was caught by Steven Croft off Anderson at 247/3.

Joyce’s fine innings eventually came to an end when Tom Smith (1-87) collected his only wicket of the day, as he fell for 137. Luke Wright (22) treated Kerrigan with disdain, hitting the leg-spinner for six to get off the mark, but soon became the third wicket in a row to fall to a catch by Croft, this time off the bowling of Glen Chapple.

Lancashire then claimed their sixth wicket with the score at 299 when Ben Brown edged behind to Buttler for no score as Chapple claimed his second wicket in quick succession.

Playing in his first match for over three months, Michael Yardy (14) would have been keen to continue his good form against Lancashire in red-ball cricket after scoring a century in the reverse fixture.

However, Chris Jordan’s attempt to get off the mark resulted in an attempt to run a quick single, which resulted in Yardy being run out by a direct hit from Usman Khawaja, forcing Sussex to lose their fifth wicket for 56 runs. Jordan and Ashar Zaidi both finished unbeaten on 17 at close of play as Sussex ended Day Two with their noses in front in a closely fought match.