Sussex no strangers to the limelight

Ed Joyce almost single-handedly dismissed Gloucestershire's FP Trophy challenge, and will seek to dominate attacks in India

Sussex may not be dripping with the star quality of other sides in the Champions League, but Ed Joyce believes England’s Twenty20 champions have a domestic pedigree their rivals cannot match.

Fresh from a near clean-sweep of limited-overs domestic honours in 2009, Sussex can call on Twenty20 expertise and a big-game temperament, as evidenced by their withstanding of a rampaging Marcus Trescothick at Edgbaston on Twenty20 Cup finals day.

And with the inaugural Champions League falling within striking distance of the English domestic season, the Sharks may also be more tuned in come their first match in Delhi.

“Winning the Twenty20 was massive for us,” Joyce told ecb.co.uk. “We had a lot of big-pressure one-day games this season, and lost only two out of five or six.

“On those occasions, younger players such as (Rory) Hamilton-Brown and (Joe) Gatting came in and did well. We have big-match temperaments, and we’re going to need them.”

Though they suffered relegation in the LV= County Championship - a competition they have dominated of late - Sussex won the Twenty20 Cup, retained their NatWest Pro40 title and were runners-up to neighbours Hampshire in the Friends Provident Trophy final at Lord’s.

Joyce’s spectacular hundred in the FP Trophy semi-final against Gloucestershire was a thrilling exposition of the sort of innings he is capable of.

England were undone by Brett Lee's toe-crunchers in the NatWest Series - how will Sussex combat a foreboding New South Wales side boasting he and many other internationals?

Some will say that counts for little when pitted against a New South Wales team bearing more than a passing resemblance to an Australia national side.

Yet the Irish batsman believes Sussex have genuine advantages over their more illustrious rivals.

“It’s true, New South Wales are a pretty intimidating side on paper,” Joyce acknowledged. “But a few of our guys have international experience as well, and (Yasir) Arafat, Dwayne Smith and Piyush Chawla are all Twenty20 experts.

“We’ve probably played more Twenty20 than (NSW) have, and are perhaps more gelled as a team. We’ve just come out of our domestic season, and I think they’ve had a reasonably long lay-off apart from the Australian guys who are playing in the Champions Trophy.

“There may be an advantage for IPL squads, in that they can play four overseas players in a game, but a lot of the time I've seen IPL, the local, younger Indian guys have done well themselves.

“Twenty20 is a funny game; it only takes one guy to come off anyhow.”

Sussex will hope their three-pronged spin attack, led by the India leg-spinner Chawla, can start to bring some closure on the legacy of Mushtaq Ahmed.

The prescient image of finals day may have been Trescothick blazing bowlers over the cover boundary, but it was a delight to see two young English spin bowlers, Beer and Hamilton-Brown, tie down Northamptonshire and Somerset batsmen on their way to the title.

Joyce said: “It helps us a little bit that Piyush Chawla is from near Delhi, so he can help us out with the local customs and pitches.

Joyce is no stranger to million-dollar Twenty20 events - he was part of Middlesex's Stanford Super Series adventure

“I think we all have a little bit of experience of playing in India. I played there for the Lions and in the run-up to the last Champions Trophy. Most of the guys have been out there, even for spin camps.

“But the place itself is the biggest shock - it’s a crazy country. The competition can be pretty big, as is the coverage. It will be important for our younger guys to stand up."

Preparing for a multi-million dollar payday - $2.5million goes to the winning team out of a $6m bounty - is nothing new for Joyce.

He was part of the Middlesex side that took part in the Stanford Super Series this time last year, and could have also played in the first Champions League.

The inaugural tournament, planned for late 2008, was cancelled at the very last minute due to the terrorist attacks that engulfed Mumbai in November.

It remains one of life’s fortunes that the Middlesex squad, who were due to check into the Taj Mahal hotel a mere 24 hours after the attack, escaped involvement in the atrocity.

Still nursing a hip injury that kept him out of the last part of this season, Joyce thinks Sussex have a greater chance of upsetting the Indian applecart than his previous employers would have.

He added: “I still have the injury but I’ve had a steroid injection that should take away much of the pain. It means I should be fine for India.

“We’re possibly a little bit stronger this year than Middlesex would have been last year. It should be exciting and I want to be there."

Sussex Sharks' Twenty20 Cup finals day victory preceded their retention of the NatWest Pro40 title