Adept at bowling slower balls and cutters, capable of hitting quick runs down the order, and athletic in the field, van der Wath possessed the qualities of the quintessential T20 cricketer and it was in this format that he achieved most of his success.

He began his career at Easterns in 1995. After 7 seasons with the club he joined the Eagles. It was here where he produced performances good enough for the Protea selectors to take notice of him and when Jacques Kallis was flown home from during the 2005-06 VB Series, South Africa needed to search for other options, it was during that time Van Der Wath came into contention.

He was a regular in the South African one day side between 2006 and 2007 playing 10 ODI's and also 8 international Twenty20 matches. It was during this period in one of the matches, he scored a quick fire 35 from 18 balls on the way to the World famous chase of 434 against Australia.

While still playing in South Africa, he joined Sussex in 2005 as an overseas player for the English season playing in 17 matches altogether. He then joined his second English county in 2007 playing for Northamptonshire, but didn't finish the season after being called up by South Africa for the T20 World cup. He retired from International Cricket in 2007. Later, South Africa banned him when he joined the rebel Indian Cricket League.

van der Wath was one of several players who accepted the olive branch offered by Cricket South Africa and returned to domestic cricket. In 2011, he was bought by the Bangalore based IPL franchise, Royal Challengers.