The first-placed Heat and runners-up Sixers were the top two teams all season long and are meeting in a worthy decider.

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The Sydneysiders won the opening final between these sides to vault into the decider, while the Heat had to overcome the Adelaide Strikers on the Gold Coast for another shot at the magenta outfit.

The Sixers are chasing a fourth title, which would leave them one behind Perth Scorchers for the most ever, while Brisbane’s lone tournament win was way back in the 2012/13 season.

You can catch all the big moments of the final right here.

8.30pm AEDT – Fans start to vent on the state of the pitch

Pitches have been a hot topic in the BBL, including Ricky Ponting’s hammering of the Sydney Showgrounds pitch for a recent Thunder match.

Fans believe the SCG track is just about as bad as the Heat struggle to increase the scoring rate at the hallowed ground.

After being sent in to bat, the visitors have reached 3/134 from 17 overs and the state of the pitch is being highlighted by some on social media.

8.20pm AEDT – SOK bows out as wickets fall

Stephen O’Keefe is a beloved member of the Sixers who is retiring after this match.

With 98 BBL wickets to his name heading into the final, it was hoped he might get the two scalps he needed to reach the ton.

It wasn’t quite to be, but O’Keefe did get the huge wicket of Josh Brown for 53, reviewing an lbw decision to get his man.

The 39-year-old O’Keefe, known as “SOK” due to his initials, finished with 1/26 from his four overs to end his BBL career on 99 wickets.

Prior to Brown’s dismissal, Ben Dwarshuis removed Heat skipper Nathan McSweeney to break an 85-run partnership for the visitors.

After 14 overs, the match is nicely poised with the Heat sitting on 3/103.

8pm AEDT – The Bison is starting to warm-up

Josh Brown has taken a while to get going, but the man known as the Bison is starting to up the pace at the SCG.

The batter who scored a 41-ball ton on Monday, the second fastest century in BBL history, and also smashed the competition’s highest ever finals score of 140 is at it again.

Brown has hit three sixes and has brought up his half-century from 32 deliveries.

“Two sixes in a row. Now he’s rolling the big man,” Mark Howard said on Fox Cricket.

After being sent in to bat, the Queenslanders are 1/90 in the 12th over.

7.35pm AEDT – “We have lift off”

It’s taken a while for the Heat innings to get going, but the in-form Josh Brown just smashed the first six of the final.

Timing a ball from Hayden Kerr to perfection, Brown’s effortless clip flew six rows back over square leg at the SCG.

“Here we go, we have lift off,” Adam Gilchrist said on Fox Cricket.

After five overs, the Heat have moved to 1/30 as the run rate improves.

7.15pm AEDT – First ball has finally been bowled

That preview was long, even for a final. Blessedly, the first ball has finally been bowled.

All eyes are on Josh Brown first up, the man who smashed an incredibly 140 from 57 balls in the Heat’s win over the Strikers on Monday.

The Heat are living dangerously so far, Brown getting a jittery thick edge to his first delivery that landed safely before a diving Hayden Kerr got a hand to a Jimmy Peirson drive at gully that went to the boundary.

Peirson was trying to smash every ball and he came unstuck, getting an edge to a wide Sean Abbott delivery as the Heat ended the first over 1/5.

6.50pm AEDT – Probably the worst bat flip ever

After Moises Henriques’ positive covid test (see below), Sixers vice-captain Daniel Hughes stood in for the pre-match bat flip to decide who would bat first.

What should be a straightforward procedure became a bit of a mess.

The unfortunate flipper, KFC franchisee Russell Raymond, awkwardly threw up the bat and it nearly landed on his own head.

Despite being called on the flat side, Raymond quickly had another attempt and luckily controversy was avoided as it again fell on the flat side.

The Sixers opted to bowl and Heat skipper Nathan McSweeney admitted he wanted to bat.

“We’ve seen a few wayward bat flips in our time,” Fox Cricket host Megan Barnard said. “Should we have another look at this one from a moment ago? It wasn’t pretty.”

Former Test wicketkeeper Brad Haddin was quickly in on the fun.

“The first thing we need is a concussion test,” he said. “He was lucky enough he didn’t take both captains out.

“But the result didn’t matter in the end. They got what they wanted to do.

“But there’s a concussion test needed now.”

6pm – Huge news right before the match starts

Following the news that Test players Travis Head and Cam Green had tested positive to Covid, now it has emerged Sixers skipper Moises Henriques has too.

“I got tested at the end of the last game, tested positive, but I’ve started to feel better the last couple of days,” Henriques told Fox Cricket.

“Just in terms of the changeroom, I’ve got a separate changeroom from the rest of the team.

“Hopefully our boys get through tonight OK and I haven’t infected any of the team or the staff in the last couple of days.”

Even though the skipper would need to be isolated from his teammates, Adam Gilchrist said he didn’t think it would affect them greatly.

“It all depends on how crook he is, if it’s really affecting him physically,” Gilchrist said.

“As far as all the protocols and being separated from the team, kept to himself, I think the players these days are used to that.

“It’s not a shock as it was say two years ago. I wouldn’t think, unless he’s feeling rubbish, I don’t think it’ll affect him too much.”

If the Sixers do win the match, it will be curious to see how Henriques and the team celebrate on the podium.

5.30pm AEDT – Attention focused on one key figure at the SCG

Plenty of the pre-match focus will, of course, be on Josh Brown’s mum, Kris.

During the Heat’s challenger final win over Adelaide, Kris Brown shot to fame as she was interviewed in the crowd watching her son go nuts with the willow.

It soon emerged Kris Brown would need a day off from her employer Coles to watch Josh in the final.

It’s understood that was granted and she has been flown to Sydney by Fox Cricket.

Told her son had hit the highest score ever in a BBL final on Monday, Kris replied: “Really? Oh my goodness, that’s amazing, that’s amazing.

“Wow. All those training sessions … I’m speechless, seriously. He’s an amazing, amazing man.”

How can you not love that?

Oh and there will also be some interest in her son, who smashed a tournament record 12 sixes in that extraordinary knock on Monday.

The man who doesn’t have a state contract and supplements his income by working with a bat maker, hit the second-fastest ton in BBL history, from 41 deliveries, just two more than Craig Simmons managed for the Scorchers 10 years ago.

5.15pm – Heat get a quick shot at revenge

The Queenslanders had been the form side all season, but suffered some blips at the worst possible time.

Having threatened to run the table undefeated, the Heat lost their last regular season match to the Scorchers before dropping that qualifying final to the Sixers.

But that dominant 54-run win over Adelaide at the Gabba gave the Brisbane side a swift shot at payback against the Sydneysiders.

While Brown stole the headlines with his batting fireworks, left-arm quick Spencer Johnson also led the way with the ball, finishing with 3-20 from his four overs as the Strikers were dismissed for just 160.

5pm AEDT – Heat star could back up against the Windies

First Travis Head and then Cameron Green tested positive to Covid in the last week ahead of Australia’s second Test against the West Indies at the Gabba starting on Thursday.

Head is expected to play, while Green’s symptoms will be monitored before a final call is made on him lining up.

That leaves the small possibility that Matt Renshaw, the next batter in waiting to break into the Test side, could be backing up at the Gabba following the BBL final.

Renshaw will bat at No. 4 at the SCG and then could be in the same position for a Test recall so if the Heat win, his celebrations will have to be cut pretty short we expect.

4.45pm – When is the BBL final Sixers vs Heat?

The big match gets underway with the first delivery at 7.15pm AEDT, with the all-important bat flip slated for 6.30pm at the SCG.

You can watch the Big Bash final on Fox Cricket, Kayo Sports or Channel 7.

Moises Henriques is captaining the home side, while popular veteran Stephen O’Keefe is playing his final match in magenta before retiring.

Brisbane is led by Nathan McSweeney, with Matt Renshaw back in the squad and power hitter Josh Brown hoping to replicate his match-winning 140 from just 57 deliveries against the Strikers on Monday night.

Big Bash final squads:

Sixers: Moises Henriques (c), Sean Abbott, Jackson Bird, Joel Davies, Ben Dwarshuis, Jack Edwards, Daniel Hughes, Hayden Kerr, Todd Murphy, Izharulhaq Naveed, Stephen O’Keefe, Kurtis Patterson, Mitch Perry, Josh Philippe, Jordan Silk

Heat: Nathan McSweeney (c), Xavier Bartlett, Josh Brown, Max Bryant, Jordan Buckingham, Spencer Johnson, Matthew Kuhnemann, Michael Neser, Jimmy Peirson, Matthew Renshaw, Mitch Swepson, Paul Walter (England), Charlie Wakim, Jack Wildermuth