6:30am Friday 10th July 2009
By Bruce Talbot
Unlucky Ed Joyce was left stunned after being caught in an opponent’s pocket during Sussex’s Championship match against Warwickshire.
The 30-year-old swept a ball from left-arm spinner Ant Botha and as short-leg fielder Jonathan Trott turned his back and jumped to take evasive action the ball went straight into his right-hand trouser pocket.
Trott turned to see where the ball had gone and was stunned to discover it had landed in his trousers.
Joyce, 30, said: “It has happened to me three times before when the ball got caught in a piece of the fielder’s clothing but never straight in the pocket.
“Trott didn’t even know it was there. He looked around before realising it was in his pocket.
“I smiled at the time but then I realised I must have done something terrible to get that sort of luck, but it is just one of those things.”
Catches are legal if they are caught in an item of fielder’s clothing but not allowed if they lodge in protective equipment such as a helmet grille.
Joyce added: “Before I have been caught in the folds of a fielder’s shirt and I once hit someone on the chest and it trickled down and was caught between his legs but that was definitely the neatest - straight in and out of his pocket.”
Joyce made 29 but unbeaten half-centuries from Luke Wright and Carl Hopkinson took Sussex to 275-4 in reply to Warwickshire’s 407 with a day to go at Edgbaston.
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