Johannesburg — Roelof van der Merwe has likened the Sunrisers Eastern Cape’s maiden Betway SA20 championship success to having “Moneyballed” it.
‘Moneyball’ is, of course, the Hollywood movie featuring Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill that is focused on the Oakland Athletics baseball team’s analytical, evidence-based sabermetric approach - the empirical analysis of baseball statistics that measure in-game activity — to assembling a competitive baseball team on a small budget.
CHAMPIONS‼️‼️‼️@SunrisersEC are the winners of the inaugural #Betway #SA20 🏆
— Betway SA20 (@SA20_League) February 12, 2023
The title is heading to Gqeberha‼️@Betway_India pic.twitter.com/ODHLNdtQke
The Sunrisers were equally shrewd at the Betway SA20 auction where they invested heavily in young South African talent like Tristan Stubbs (R9.2-million) and Marco Jansen (R6.1m) and went for bargain overseas purchases like Van der Merwe (R175 000) and Adam Rossington (R425 000).
Englishman Rossington repaid his purchase price countless times with 246 runs in the tournament, including a match-winning 57 off just 30 balls in the final against the Pretoria Capitals.
Van der Merwe was even more effective, with the Dutch international finishing as the tournament’s leading wicket-taker with 20 wickets at average of 9.55. The 38-year-old also won the Player of the Match award in the final for his figures of 4/31 at the Wanderers.
“The Sunrisers would probably still have won without me, but I’m still trying to figure out how we won when nobody gave us a chance. We gelled well though, we almost Moneyballed it,” Van der Merwe, who played 26 times for the Proteas more than a decade ago, said.
Sunrisers captain Aiden Markram paid tribute to the veteran’s role in turning around his team’s fortunes after they had lost their opening two games of the campaign.
“Having lost the first two games we needed characters to be out there on the park and lead the fight,” Markram said
“No better man to lead it. It sort of rubs off on everyone in the group. It plays a massive role in that everyone looks to follow in his footsteps. The biggest thing for us as a team was to have that passion and desperation to win that Roelof brought.”
Van der Merwe was adamant that even at his 'veteran’ age that he would be more than keen to have a crack at defending the championship with the Sunrisers next season, especially also to help the young players in the squad with their development.
“I just love competing, any sort of competition, and as long as I can do that I will.
There will be a whole lot of celebrating tonight for the @SunrisersEC! #Betway #SA20@Betway_India pic.twitter.com/OYdHM41Kb0
— Betway SA20 (@SA20_League) February 12, 2023
“I love coming back and playing here and I’m glad I was able to contribute this year. Winning trophies is why we play. There’s probably a bit still left in the tank for me.
“For the local guys, they don’t see crowds like this often in domestic cricket and seeing how they react under that pressure, they will absorb a massive amount from this tournament,” Van der Merwe said.
The veteran will be back on South African shores with the Netherlands team at the end of the March when they face the Proteas in two One-Day Internationals.
IOL Sport