Roelof van der Merwe

An attacking middle order batsman and a left arm orthodox spinner, Roelof Erasmus van der Merwe represented South Africa in the 2004 Under 19 World Cup before making his first class debut in 2006 for Northerns. His duck on debut set the tone for the rest of the season as he turned out to be a failure. But good times came in 2007, when he made a switch to franchise cricket with the Titans. He had tremendous success in the shorter formats with Titans with both the bat and ball. He was Titans' leading wicket taker in the MTN Domestic Championship with 27 wickets, and also scored 269 runs batting in the middle order. In the Standard Bank Pro20 series that followed, he became the third highest wicket taker with 13 wickets and also contributed with 192 runs. Titans won both the tournaments and van der Merwe swept all the awards, bagging the Player of the Year, MTN Domestic Championship Player of the Year, Standard Bank Pro20 Series Player of the Year and the Newcomer of the Year at the team's end of season awards. At the South African annual cricket function, he bagged the Domestic Newcomer of the Year award.