Van der Merwe’s 4-31 sets up SA20 victory for Sunrisers Eastern Cape
Published at 12 February, 2023The final of the South African T20 league, which rained off on Saturday at the Wanderers in Johannesburg, was played on Sunday. None other than Dutch international Roelof van der Merwe was named Player of the Match. With 4-31, he delivered a performance that proved crucial to the course of the match.
Pretoria Capitals batted first after the Sunrisers had won the toss. Salt, De Bruyn, Ingram and Bosch had no answer to the variations of the Dutch left arm spinner: three fantastic bowleds and a stumping. Not a single batsman made more than 21 runs. As a result, Pretoria Capitals only managed 135 all out.
Although Sunrisers Eastern Cape found it surprisingly to chase this score, the solid Englishman Adam Rossington had already laid the foundation for a win with 57 runs. Six wickets fell before the tall all-rounder Marco Jansen secured the victory with a four and a six.
“I’m so, so happy”, an exhausted Van der Merwe stated after the match. “We improved as we got to know each other better during the event and it’s great to eventually win it at the Wanderers. The boys and the crowd were unbelievable.” Van der Merwe finished as joint leading wickettaker (twenty) in the tournament.
The Sunrisers had another Dutch connection in the background: our men's coach Ryan Cook acted as fielding coach.
Photo credit: Getty images/ICC
