Sarel Erwee had a disappointing debut in the last match. In the second match, he came out as a saviour for South Africa.
His international debut took rather a long time. Aged 32, he debuted against New Zealand in the first match at Hagley Oval.
Debuting against New Zealand in New Zealand was never going to be an easy ride. Consequently, he was taken aback. The New Zealand bowling line-up has always been a struggle for visitors.
Whoever visits New Zealand, finds it hard to tackle late movement of the ball. Surely, New Zealand has the best opening bowling pair in the world of cricket.
New Zealand has a multidimensional bowing department. With the addition of Neil Wagner and Kyle Jamieson, there is always trouble at the door for the batsman.
Despite everything, Sarel Erwee conquered all on a foreign wicket and produced productive and wonderful innings. This wasn’t as easy as he made it look.
Coming from humiliating defeat and facing pressure to retain the place, he managed everything with adequate remarks.
Erwee made his List A debut against KZN Inland in January 2008. As a lower-order batsman, he only scored one run. In October 2008, he made his first-class debut against South Western Districts.
In his first inning, batting in the top of the order, he scored eight runs. He was a member of the KZN Inland side that competed in the 2015 Africa T20 Cup.
In the 2017–18 Ram Slam T20 Challenge, he hit his maiden century in Twenty20 cricket, scoring 103 not out for Dolphins against Cape Cobras in November 2017.
Since then, his performance has been steadily gaining consistency. His technical adeptness and ability to absorb pressure and perform gave him the first national call-in December 2020.
Erwee faced 221 balls in the first inning. He scored 14 boundaries. Clearly, he looks like an off-side dominated player who can hit conventional and firm off drive shots.
Additionally, he was able to find a gap most of the time. As a composed player, he doesn’t lean too much on the ball but rather allows it to come under the bat.
In test cricket, a good batsman knows which ball to hit and which ball to level. And he did it efficiently. Quite focused in nature, he is a player with a set frame of mind as we can see from the way he played on the first day.