PAARL ROYALS COUNTING ON BOLAND PARK GEES

Paarl Royals captain David Miller is hoping his team can build up some early momentum when they kickstart their Betway Season 4 campaign against Sunrisers Eastern Cape at Boland Park on Saturday.

Miller will be leading a much-changed squad from the one that were the first team in the history of the League to win all five home matches last season.

With the conditions at Boland Park quite unique and essential to the success of the Royals, home matches are of paramount importance, and Miller hopes his team can gel nice and early.

“Yeah, it's one of those unique teams where we sort of feed off the crowd and the crowd feeds off us,” Miller said.

“I'm talking from a playing point of view. And when new guys sort of come into our team, the first thing that they do experience is the crowd and how they feed off our energy on the field. And with it being such a short tournament, we do try and bond quite a bit off the field as well.

“For me as captain, I just want to really connect on an individual basis over the next couple of days. Find out how guys tick, what works for them. You just hope and pray that the first game goes really well, and we get off to a great start and then momentum is on our side.”

Miller will certainly be counting on Royals veteran Bjorn Fortuin not only to take care of the opening Powerplay but also bring the gees the Boland Park-based side is renowned for.

“Bjorn's been around, he's an old man now,” Miller chirped. “He's obviously proven to the world and everyone around us here that he's an experienced player. He's done it at the highest level, and his cricketing brain is really switched on,

“We've been together from the start, and I've leaned on him for the last couple of years playing that big role for the team. He's been an anchor and a pillar of strength for our bowling unit for the last couple of years. He’s also going to be leading our song this year.”

Sunrisers Eastern Cape, meanwhile, also begin a new journey under captain Tristan Stubbs.

The 25-year-old has taken over from Aiden Markram and will be leading the two-time champions for the first time.

Coach Aiden Birrell has the greatest confidence that Stubbs will rise to the challenge, especially with a senior core of players such as Quinton de Kock, Jonny Bairstow and Matthew Breetzke all around him offering support and guidance.

"He's very inexperienced as a captain but there are other experienced guys around him that will help him," Birrell said. "As a coaching staff, we are fairly experienced and we will help. We feel it's the right time for him to step into captaincy."

MATCH OFFICIALS FOR #PRVSEC

On-field umpires: Arno Jacobs and Abdoellaah Steenkamp

TV umpire: Marais Erasmus

Reserve umpire: Thomas Mokorosi

Match referee: Shandre Fritz

PR VS SEC BETWAY SA20 HEAD TO HEAD