India witnessed a different kind of evening on October 17, Tuesday. While the sky had turned dark black, it had a tinge of Orange making it an evening of sorts.
Moving to the west, it was still evening—7.30 PM—in South Africa, the sun had settled and the sky had turned dark a bit earlier. Needless to mention, it was full of terrors.
The Netherlands, to distant-north of South Africa, interestingly share the same time zone. But not the same time. While the sun had settled down, the sky was still Orange. The energy which the team generated in India after beating South Africa made the Orange even brighter.
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One of the prime energy sources for the Dutch on Tuesday was their age-old but not ancient Roelof van der Merwe.
38-year-old Van der Merwe started playing cricket even before his teammates Aryan Dutt and Vikramjit Singh were born.
Van der Merwe played 26 games for South Africa—more than a decade ago—making his debut in 2009. To add some context, Barack Obama was appointed the President of United States that year, Microsoft had just released Windows 7, Manmohan Singh had been elected as India’s Prime Minister, and the likes of Umar Akmal, Mohammed Ameer, and JP Duminy had just made their debuts.
Despite being one of the most experienced players in the side, the all-rounder believes that he is just a consistent performer, more than anything else.
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“As a senior sort of guy in the team, I am still, just there to be a consistent performer for the team. I don’t think that role will change or has changed, I just want to be a consistent performer,” van der Merwe tells News 18 CricketNext.
Van der Merwe moved to the Netherlands in 2015 as he didn’t play for South Africa after 2010. Besides him, Sybrand Engelbrecht, and Colin Ackermann have represented South Africa in the past.
The all-rounder suggests that there is no specific reason for the migration of cricketers.
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“I’m not too sure why South African players get out from South Africa and play for Netherlands, I think it just depends where in the world they are and what opportunities come their way, so I don’t think there is a fix reason behind it, it’s just the way it has worked out.”
Despite all the aforementioned history, playing for two countries, and starting the international career almost 14 years back, this is the first ODI World Cup for van der Merwe and he is as excited as anyone would be.
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“It’s a great feeling, playing in the 50-over World Cup. It’s been a long time coming and I was excited it’s a massive privilege to play in one of these, not many people get the chance to do that, so yeah I am super excited for what’s to come from this tournament. It’s a great event to play in a country where cricket has fanatic support, so it’s a great tournament and very happy to be here.”
The Dutch defeated the Proteas by 38 runs at Dharamshala’s HPCA Stadium. But they had already defeated the Proteas less than a year back in the 2022 T20 World Cup. The Bulldog says that it was a great win but nothing to do with the fact that they have many South Africans in the dressing room.
“Beating South Africa was great, but I think beating any team at the World Cup is great. I think more importantly, we have got our World Cup campaign off to a good start, we got our first win, so now we look to build on that.
“The fact that we beat them twice in two World Cups, I don’t think there is anything to do with some players originating from South Africa, or we have loads of South African staff. I just think we played better cricket than them on those particular days. They are a quality team and we know that. I don’t think it’s got anything to do with who’s from where and that stuff.”
Nevertheless, the twin defeats also suggest that it is South Africa that chokes, and not the South Africans.
While a lot of team members as well as Head Coach Ryan Cook have suggested that van der Merwe brings a lot of energy along with him, the all-rounder said that the environment propels him to do his best.
“Personally, my experience playing for the Netherlands has been awesome. We got a great group, a great bunch of guys, and awesome support staff, so it’s an environment which makes it quite easy to give your best and perform at your best. Everybody is on the same page.”
Dutch skipper Colin Edwards did a rear-guard act in the first innings with the bat. And van der Merwe said that they had a defendable total on board.
“I think halfway through the innings, I think we were okay with what we got on the board, and we knew it was something we could defend. Not necessarily a comfortable score.
“But I would always say, you are never in control of the game, it just takes one player to come in and change the momentum of the game and take the initiative back. I would say, I was pretty comfortable that we were gonna win when they needed more than six a ball. Yeah, it was a good performance by the boys and we would like to build on that.”
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