The Paarl Royals plan to bring the heat to Friday’s SA20 Cape derby against MI Cape Town at Boland Park on Friday.

Temperature are set to exceed 31°C in the Winelands when the rivals battle it out for Western Cape supremacy.

Paarl Royals captain David Miller, fresh from leading his team to a five-wicket victory over the Sunrisers Eastern Cape at St George’s Park, is certainly looking forward to the back-to-back derbies on 2 and 4 January.

“I don’t think it gets bigger than this,” Miller said. “I suppose every game is huge – in the SA20, there’s no room to make a mistake – but obviously back here, it’s a good derby. Hopefully we give them a good one.”

Miller was in excellent form against the Sunrisers, striking an unbeaten 71, which allowed the Royals to bounce back from demoralising opening defeat at Boland Park.

“There are moments throughout the competition, you really do need your senior players to stand up and just lead from the front in that department,” he said. “So, it was nice from our side to do well, I was really chuffed with that.”

HIGHLIGHTS: Sunrisers Eastern Cape vs Paarl Royals

Two Royals youngsters, seamer Nqobani Mokoena (4-34) and batsman Keagan Lion-Cachet (45), fed off the seniors’ experience and Miller feels this only bodes well for the remainder of the competition.

“Nqobani has express, raw pace. He still has a lot to learn. But I love the way that he goes about it. He really is into the battle and he backs himself, which is a big character trait to have.

“And then working together with Keagan was just really cool. I really enjoyed the way he went about it. It’s his first game for the Paarl Royals and under a lot of pressure. The team was under a lot of pressure.”

AFRICA PICKS: Royals look to build momentum against MICT

Meanwhile, MI Cape Town coach Robin Peterson has called on his players to be a lot more clinical as the defending champions go hunting their first win of the competition to get their campaign back on track.

“We’ve just got to sharpen up more mentally and up our execution rate in all facets,” he said.

“We’ve all got to look at ourselves at the end of the day. That’s what you do when you’re a team. I think it’s not only pointing fingers at one department.

“I think we’ve all got to look at each other within the group and see how we can turn it around quickly. We’ve only played two games [with the other rained out]. We still have another seven left.

“We’ve shown that the guys in the dressing room have won this competition before and have experienced pain. It’s just a different journey this year.”

Photo: Shaun Roy/Sportzpics