The Big Bash League winner will be crowned on Wednesday when the final of the competition takes place at the Sydney Cricket Ground as the Sydney Sixers play host to the table toppers Brisbane Heat, who meet for the second time in this postseason.
The Sixers ensured home advantage by beating the Heat in the opening match of the postseason. Having lost in the final last year, Brisbane will be eager to avoid successive defeats in the final. Sydney know how to win so this is nicely set up.
Sydney Sixers
The Sydney Sixers haven’t been the best team in the competition but they are now the favourites to win it. Home advantage is felt to be key but the other reason why they are the favourites is because they have played their best cricket in the business end of the season. I regularly point out in these franchise events that they are rarely won by the best team but almost always won by the team playing the best around the time that the title is won.
The Sixers go into this match off the back of having won their last four outings, including that win over the Heat in the Qualifier earlier in the finals. The Sixers’ attack has really come to the fore in that run and as I often point out it is the bowlers who win these things. You do need to score runs though and the Sydney top order has delivered enough of them in recent times and now they are at home you sense Sydney will be hard to beat.
Brisbane Heat
You have to give a lot of credit to the Brisbane Heat for making their way through to this final. Having messed up their first chance to get into it, they were under all sorts of pressure to get the better of the Adelaide Strikers because no team wants to earn two shots at the final and then not get there. It is never easy to pick yourselves up from a disappointment and go and win a match 48 hours later, and while the Heat had home advantage, it is still no routine achievement.
You could argue that the Heat won because of one purely brilliant innings but sometimes players in T20 matches have a day out and take games out of the hands of the opposition. You can’t rely on that over the course of the season but if those innings are timed to perfection it will certainly be welcomed. In the case of the Heat, given their bowling attack is legit and they were missing key batters, such an innings couldn’t have been better timed.
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Key Players
Ben Dwarshuis took five wickets to get the Sydney Sixers through to the final and the former champions will be hoping that the seamer has another collection of wickets in his repertoire in this final. If he does they will have every chance here.
The Brisbane Heat are in this final because of that incredible innings by Josh Brown and if he can go even half as well as he did in Carrara on Monday then he could have the Heat out of sight inside the first 10 overs. If he falls early though Brisbane will have a lot of work to do.
Betting
I expected the Sydney Sixers to win when these two met to open up the postseason and I think they will double down in quick succession. The schedule of these finals never looked like it would assist whoever was the second team into the final because Brisbane were playing in Carrara on Monday night and will be kicking off this final in Sydney, miles away, less than 48 hours after their previous match finished. That makes it hard enough for the Heat but the absence of their Test batters does them no favours either.
Sydney Sixers haven’t been the best team throughout this competition but recently their form has been so good and it is that recent form which is pretty much all that matters from here on in, especially when you consider that players have left for other tournaments in recent times. The big thing for me on top of that is the preparation time that the Sixers have had. They know how to win this title having done it on a number of occasions and I think they win the title again here.
Tips
Back Sydney Sixers to beat Brisbane Heat for a 3/10 stake at 1.73 with William Hill
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