The Big Bash League final has arrived, with the Perth Scorchers hosting the Brisbane Heat at Optus Stadium on Saturday evening.
The tournament finale is a sellout, but temperatures are predicted to soar towards 38 degrees during the highly-anticipated match.
MATCH CENTRE: Scorchers vs Heat teams, scorecard, videos, updates
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The reigning champions have once again been the competition’s dominant club, losing just three matches in seven weeks, while the Heat scraped into the post-season after a rocky start to their chaotic campaign.
Both sides are without several of first-choice players — Scorchers superstars Mitchell Marsh and Jhye Richardson are nursing injuries, while international recruits Laurie Evans, Tymal Mills and Phil Salt never made an appearance this summer.
Test stars Cameron Green, Lance Morris and Ashton Agar are also unavailable, having flown to India ahead of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy earlier this week.
Meanwhile, the Heat are without captain Usman Khawaja and fellow Test players Matthew Renshaw and Marnus Labuschagne, while international recruits Sam Billings and Colin Munro have flown to the United Arab Emirates for the high-paying ILT20.
The West Australian newspaper caused a stir by branding the Heat squad “a bunch of nobodies” on the back page of Saturday morning’s edition.
The Heat and Scorchers faced off 10 years ago in the 2013 final, also in Perth, and the visitors emerged victorious in a huge upset.
“I feel as if we have the freedom of the underdog,’’ Heat captain Jimmy Peirson said.
“It allows you to take a breath and do your job. Particularly for a side which is quite young and inexperienced in some places.
“The feeling around the groups is relaxed. It is not so much we have nothing to lose but we don’t have the home town pressure of having to win and smash the opposition. The pressure is on them. We are the underdogs.
“We are a Queensland team. You look at some of our best Shield wins in the 1990s and early 2000s. They were backs against the wall stuff. And of course our Origin team is how we played our sport in Queensland.
“That is what Queensland teams do and we are starting to build that culture. That grit and determination to find a way to win. It might not always be sexy and pretty but if we win, it doesn’t matter. We are starting to build a culture.’’
The first ball is scheduled for 4.30pm local time (7.30pm AEDT).
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Scorchers Squad
Ashton Turner (c), Cameron Bancroft, Jason Behrendorff, Cooper Connolly, Stephen Eskinazi, Aaron Hardie, Peter Hatzoglou, Nick Hobson, Josh Inglis (vc), Matt Kelly, David Payne, Chris Sabburg, Charlie Stobo, Andrew Tye
Heat Squad
Jimmy Peirson (c), Xavier Bartlett, James Bazley, Josh Brown, Max Bryant, Sam Hain, Sam Heazlett, Spencer Johnson, Matt Kuhnemann, Nathan McSweeney, Michael Neser, Will Prestwidge, Mark Steketee, Ross Whiteley, Jack Wildermuth