Roelof van der Merwe to play the Friends Provident T20 competition for Somerset this year
English county’s http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Somerset-c843 has signed the South African left arm spinner, Roelof van der Merwe, for the Friends Provident T20 competition this season.
Prior to that, Somerset had signed the West Indian hard-hitting all-rounder, Kieron Pollard, for the tournament but he will not be able to take part in the first eight matches of the season because the all-rounder will be busy playing the One Day International
series against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750, which starts next month.
Apart from an effective left arm orthodox spinner, Van der Merwe is an outstanding fielder and also possesses the ability to hit the ball a long way.
Director of Somerset cricket, Brian Rose, is very optimistic that the South African all-rounder will not let the club down and will play a part in Somerset’s success this season.
Rose said, "Roelof is a big-hitting batsman, excellent fielder and bowls slow left-arm deliveries. I believe he will prove an excellent signing”.
Van der Merwe made his One Day International (ODI) debut against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757 and has grabbed 17 wickets at a reasonable average of 33 runs per wicket.
However, the left arm bowler has been more impressive in the T20 format of the game as he has an economy rate of 6.93 runs per over, which is quite impressive in the shortest version of cricket.
He has been a good performer with the bat at the domestic level in South Africa but has not been able to make an impression with the bat in international cricket. This is one of the reasons that he lost his place in the ODI lineup to Robin Peterson.
Rose added that Van der Merwe is a similar player as Pollard and he is hopeful that the Proteas all-rounder will take up the responsibility on his shoulders, being an overseas player.
“Knowing that Kieron was not going to be available for a while, we looked at other options in terms of an overseas player, who could bat at six, fields well and also bowls effectively in the tournament", he added.
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