“Bulldogs will always be hard work.” Or should that be bulldogs will always do hard work? “I don’t really know what to say about that,” a laughing Roelof van der Merwe tells Cricinfo from Lucknow, where Netherlands are preparing to play Sri Lanka in their fourth World Cup game.

Thirty-six hours before our chat, the Dutch beat South Africa - the country of van der Merwe’s birth, and the team he represented 26 times more than a decade ago - to announce themselves at this tournament. Eleven months earlier, Netherlands beat South Africa in their final group-stage match of the T20 World Cup to knock them out of the competition. Van der Merwe was a key figure on both occasions and his nickname, “Bulldog”, which speaks to his tenacity and/or stubbornness (depending on which way you look at it), has been one of the most repeated words used in descriptions about the spirit the team has shown.

So does he actually own a bulldog?

“I was thinking about it and I did some research and found out that they are hard work. I’ve settled for a poodle. A Shih-Poo - it’s a mix between a Shih Tzu and a poodle,” he says.

And who is the Shih-Poo of the Netherlands’ team? “Let me think... who is chilled and just wants to lie around all day,” van der Merwe muses out loud. “I’ll go with Paul van Meekeren.”

The former Uber Eats driver was anything but easygoing in the South Africa match. Like van der Merwe, van Meekeren took two crucial wickets in South Africa’s chase. Also, like van der Merwe, van Meekeren was not part of the Netherlands’ World Cup qualifying campaign in Zimbabwe, where they beat West Indies and Scotland on their way to securing their spots in India. The pair also played a limited part in the Netherlands’s World Cup Super League run - county and life experiences are an important part of the current squad.

Van der Merwe, for example, has been playing cricket since before some of the Dutch squad, such as Aryan Dutt and Vikramjit Singh, were born. He was hopeful of playing in a World Cup a dozen years ago, when the only member of the current squad who was involved with Dutch cricket was Wesley Barresi, but fell out of South Africa’s plans and since then thought a 50-over World Cup was never going to be part of his story. Little did he know how much would change.

“I thought 2011 was my best chance of getting selected for South Africa but it didn’t happen and it was disappointing,” he said. “I never actually thought about it after that again,” he said. “I am ecstatic to be playing a 50-over World Cup. It’s a great privilege.”

He played the last of his South Africa ODIs on a tour to the West Indies in 2010, by which time it had become clear that the team wanted a more attacking spinner. “Immy [Imran Tahir] became available and it was a no-brainer because he is special, he is a mystery spinner, and that is exactly what we needed at the time. It was disappointing for me but I understood because that guy is a gun.”

Now, van der Merwe is the gun in a Dutch team, where not everyone is a professional sportsperson, and has found himself as the face of their success even if he isn’t quite ready to own that yet. “I still feel like am just a steady allrounder,” he says. “I want to be a consistent cricketer and in South Africa I only needed to be that and that was fine. In Holland, it seems like I am doing a bit more but I am still just trying to be a consistent performer. I am not a superstar.”

Ask around, and opinions will differ. During the game against South Africa, Mitchell McClenaghan, speaking on ESPNcricinfo’s Match Day show, identified the periods of play which van der Merwe was involved in as among “the most energetic of this World Cup so far”, and that it ignited a contest that could have gone flat. “What he brings to the game is pure enjoyment,” McClenaghan said.

Van der Merwe’s first impact came with the bat, when he joined Scott Edwards in the 34th over, with Netherlands on 140 for 7. He immediately took on the bowling, and took 15 runs off Gerald Coetzee to take the fight to South Africa. Edwards responded to the intent and together they put on what was ultimately a match-winning 64 for the eighth wicket. Did he plan to up the ante in that way? “That’s just always what I try to do,” he said. “I feel if I bring that energy, it gives me the better chance to perform as well. It’s just generally something that I focus on with my game: I want to run hard. I want to look busy. It gets me into the game.”

“We want to do well, we have those pressures around performing but it does get a little bit easier when you get older, you understand that a bit better. Playing at my age, you have a bit of perspective - it’s just a game”

Roelof van der Merwe on being one of the senior pros in the Netherlands team

The same thing applies in the field. Van der Merwe likes to “get into the game as early as possible” with the ball because he feels that “the longer it drags on, I am not in the game; even if I just get a quick bowl, it gets me going”.

He was brought on in the powerplay and took a wicket with his first ball, and a crucial wicket too. Van der Merwe bowled South Africa captain Temba Bavuma with a delivery that completely foxed him, even though it was not intended to.

“The lack of turn did him,” van der Merwe said. “You will take those also. There isn’t a better sight than turning past the bat and getting [the batter] bowled but when it goes past the inside [edge], you will take that as well. But personally, it was a good wicket for me to take. It just gave me more confidence and settled me into my spell.”

And it was palpable even to those from the outside how much difference getting that wicket made. “You could see his fielding lifted from there as well and when you see a 38-year old diving around, stopping the ball, putting his body on the line and getting up with his hands on knees because he is absolute knackered, that’s the stuff that lifts the young fellows,” McClenaghan said.

Van der Merwe’s age makes him the second-oldest at this World Cup - Barresi tops the list - but he has not suggested it will be his last tournament and still relishes playing cricket. “I just love the competition of it. I am a very competitive person in whatever I do - and being around guys in the changeroom, I really enjoy it. It keeps me young.”

But he admits that things are starting to catch up with him. “The training and playing and physical part of that - I still feel I am up to date with that,” he says. “But the recovery part is a bit harder and a bit longer. I do feel it a bit more in the days after. It feels like I am still competing physically and doing everything they [his team-mates] can, obviously not at the same pace. And I am trying to save all my energy for the games.”

That kind of approach comes with age, and the knowledge of when to push and when to hold back. It’s also why van der Merwe can put the Dutch dream of qualifying for the World Cup, playing in it, turning over a top side and still aiming for the semi-finals in context. While he still believes they can get there, he also isn’t overly concerned with looking that far ahead.

“With experience, those anxieties we have around the game and failure and losing, you do get a bit of perspective around it,” he said. “We want to do well, we have those pressures around performing but it does get a little bit easier when you get older, you understand that a bit better. Playing at my age, you have a bit of perspective - it’s just a game.”

But, on the right days and at the right times, it’s a bloody good game and van der Merwe knows that too. Asked to sum up his feelings on Thursday night, he had three words: “It was lekker!”

That’s Afrikaans for nice, great but it’s also not quite. Said with a South African accent in the right tone it means it was much more than just nice or great. It was spectacular. But does it mean that the Dutch made themselves South Africa’s nemesis? “We beat them twice in a row at World Cups now and everybody is like: “You’re their bogey team.” It doesn’t matter who we beat. People still ask me if it feels better because its South Africa and the answer is no, we have to beat all the teams. Just because I’ve got that link with South Africa, doesn’t make it more special.” –Cricinfo