Fireworks expected during WBBL final

The rivalry between these two states, New South Wales and Victoria, is steeped in history and tradition. 

Men’s cricket, women’s cricket, any other sport, even the weather - the bickering is constant, and ferocious. The rivalry between their respective Big Bash teams, by contrast, is nascent. 

The ferocity however, remains. 

In this year’s inaugural Rebel Women’s Big Bash League, both Sydney and Melbourne fielded two sides each - Sydney had the Thunder and Sixers, Melbourne the Stars and Renegades. 

WATCH: Thunder into the big dance

It was a model built on the existing men’s KFC Big Bash League, already five years in. 

It was a model too that appeared robust; Australia’s two leading cricketing states, across both genders, had been split in two in a bid to level a competition that for years had been dominated by just two metropolitan hubs. 

In the men’s tournament, the Sixers have won it once. 

That triumph aside, coming in the BBL’s first edition, none of the other four aforementioned teams came close. 

Perth, three hours away but 30 years behind (allegedly), so quaint and yet the most parochial of the lot, were the leaders of the pack. 

In the women’s inaugural tournament, it looked at first as if the ploy had worked. 

New South Wales, who have won 10 of the last 11 50-over domestic titles, and contested five of the last six T20 finals, had had their powerbase split in two. 

The team dynamic, so treasured at state level, had gone. 

The Sixers suffered the most, losing their first six on the trot. 

The Melbourne Renegades faired little better, losing the first four. 

The Stars and Thunder marched on, taking the bulk of their state’s players and mirroring their male counterparts with their early season form. 

There were capable challengers however, the Hobart Hurricanes and Perth Scorchers proving the biggest nuisance. 

Lisa Sthalekar, Sydney Sixers player, former Southern Star and general cricket-guru extraordinaire, even ventured so far as to try and explain why it was that her team, and the Renegades, were faring so poorly. 

WATCH: Sthalekar claims three wickets

Nobody gave hers a chance. 

Next year perhaps, once the Sixers had time to work out who they were, maybe then they could count as true contenders. 

This year, surely, they were just here for the ride - live, learn and lap it all up. 

In one particular instance, in early December, the Sydney Sixers collapsed to 4-14, then 8-35, before managing to scramble to 81 all out against the Scorchers. 

It was a humiliation. 

Onlookers squirmed - this wasn’t the advert women’s cricket was looking for. 

Fast forward just a month and the Sixers, after seven seemingly implausible consecutive wins, were in trouble at 4-20. 

Just as they were written off in the tournament’s early stages, so they were too in this match. 

They had had a good ride, a good comeback, but surely now, the fairy-tale was over. 

It had been fun. 

That the Sixers made the finals is a minor miracle. 

Theirs is a tale from which blockbuster films are made. 

The Thunder, by contrast, are more of a reflection of the strength, depth and dominance of New South Wales cricket. 

Yes, their state was split in two, but their team contained 11 players of the highest pedigree, and a balance of experience and youth that was perfectly spread. 

The Sixers have a couple of superstars, who, once they found form, catapulted their side into the final. 

The Thunder were a safer bet from the start, performing consistently and able to call on deep resources should their equivalent stars fail to form. 

Stafanie Taylor, the world’s top ranked T20 player and who was on fire in the tournament’s early stages, made just 27 runs in seven outings leading into the finals.

Her team still prevailed.   

WATCH: Taylor's fielding blooper

For over a decade now, Victoria and New South Wales have fought it out at the top of domestic women’s cricket. 

For over a decade too, New South Wales, to the chagrin of all Victorians, have been the superior of the two. 

The victorious Victoria U18 side at this year’s national festival prevailed over New South Wales for the first time in years. 

Perhaps Victoria won’t have to wait too long to see the tables turn at senior level. 

Tomorrow however, for one afternoon at least, the MCG will become a little part of Sydney in a foreign state. 

The Thunder had their name etched into the finals from the beginning. 

The Sixers on the other hand, after six straight defeats, are on the back of a nine-match winning streak and a comeback which has been compared to all manner of staggering turnaround tales, both fact and fiction. 

It's all to play for. 

There are game-changers in both teams. 

WATCH: Patient Perry guides Sixers home

They have one win apiece against each other, the Sixers being the form team of recent.

The rest of us may love to hate these two dominant outfits; the green-eyed monster is a vicious beast. 

Yet like it or loathe it, these are the two finalists. 

It may, and I hope it does for diversity’s sake, change in finals to come. 

For now however, sit back, relax, and appreciate the final for what it's worth - a showcase of some of the world's best on one of the world's great stages. 

It'll be a cracker.