Van der Merwe is no joke

Have you heard the latest one about Van der Merwe?

He's given New Zealand a bloody nose, er, at cricket, and he has the best economy rate at the World Twenty20 in England at the end of the first round of matches.

And he's a spinner.

South Africa's "bulldog", Roelof van der Merwe, made his senior international debut against Australia in the summer and, fitting in straight away, has continued to epitomise the rise of the slow bowler, particularly in the 20-overs format.

In fact the Proteas' slow left-armer, with 3.87 runs conceded in each of his eight overs at the World T20, leads in the economy stakes as the tournament heads for the Super 8s stage.

His more experienced team mate, Johan Botha, is fifth in this particular table and four of the first five in the ranks of the most economical are spinners.

Van der Merwe may view himself as a containing, rather than a wicket-taking, bowler but his canny dismissals of the Kiwis' two top strikers in Ross Taylor and Brendon McCullum in a one-run victory for the Proteas on Tuesday proves he does not lack success in the wickets column.

He is one of two spinners with four victims in the second World T20 and the leading wicket-taker is another proponent of slow left-arm orthodox, India's Pragyan Ojha, with six wickets.

For more proof of the influence of spin in the short format the IPL, which recently departed our shores, boasted six spinners in the top 14 wicket-takers.

A fast bowler, RP Singh, finished top with 23 wickets but he was closely followed by compatriot, leg-spinner Anil Kumble, with 21 scalps. Ojha shared in the Deccan Chargers' IPL triumph with Singh, taking 18 wickets - fifth best.

Spinners have proved an effective counter to the biff-bang batting mode required in T20 cricket. The fact that slow bowlers "take the pace off the ball" forces batsmen to take the initiative against them.

Fields can be set to spinners to limit scoring areas and dry up runs, which also puts pressure on batsmen to hit boundaries, a mindset which perhaps more often than in longer formats of the game creates opportunities to take wickets.

Fielding sides might be content to concede a single a ball in 20-overs cricket, since chasing a total of around 120 would generally be considered achievable.

And the momentum can go south for a batting side in the space of a couple of dot-balls, forcing batsmen to improvise to find scoring options in areas of the ground they are not used to hitting to.

Quick, bouncy wickets will see pace bowlers play a bigger role but the spin phenomenon seems to work in all conditions.

Botha, South Africa's limited overs vice-captain, is nominally the Proteas' leading spinner in 50-overs and 20-overs cricket and, with impeccable control, he certainly dominated the series against Australia in the 2008/09 season, with super-economical spells in the middle overs of matches.

Van der Merwe, though, is an all-action, combative type of player who is regularly in the thick of things, with bat, ball or in the field.

He's always up for a scrap and he and Botha have had the measure of many opponents in the T20 arena. Top-order batsman JP Duminy, an off-spinner like Botha, has also proved a valuable asset in the slow bowling department.

Remarkably for South Africa, their World T20 squad of 15 contains five spinning options in Botha, Van der Merwe, Duminy, Robin Peterson and Justin Ontong.

The format demands more slow bowlers but this composition is an interesting departure from when a couple of spinners would have been the norm.

The frenetic tempo in T20 means the nerveless - in all three disciplines - will prosper but in the ranks of the spinners the geniuses, who possess a range of deliveries, and variations of pace, should taste more success.

Kumble and Shane Warne, both retired from the international scene, proved this in the IPL. Muttiah Muralitharan and the mysterious Ajantha Mendis, for Sri Lanka, are other examples.

T20 cricket has certainly changed the mindset that spinners are to be used for the odd over here and there or when the seamers have battled to break a partnership. The Van der Merwes of this world have proved that they have a serious role to play.