BBL final live updates: Steve Smith takes centre stage as Sydney Sixers face Perth Scorchers

Oh my word, he's looking on again tonight, is Steve Smith.

Four! He flays one over cover for a boundary.

Maximum! Smith proceeds to smash one behind square for six, just over despairing fielder on the rope.

He works a single to get off strike.

It's the old master versus the young buck, Mahli Beardman to Steve Smith.

Four! Smith is off the mark with a smash over the off-side for a boundary.

Four more! Straight down the ground and four more!

Smith squirts a pull shot out through midwicket for three.

And new batter Josh Philippe sees out two dots to end the over.

And we're away.

Cooper Connolly, bowling his left arm finger spin from over the wicket to the left handed Dan Hughes, gets things underway.

Hughes is pushing into the on-side and then cutting and missing at a wide one.

Three dots and a very good start for Connolly.

Hughes is off the mark with a push to mid-on.

Steve Smith to face his first ball of the match...

French cut! A streaky start for Smith, who under edges one past the stumps and into the on-side. No run.

A dot to end the over.

It's hard to look past the Heat-Scorchers clash on December 19, when Brisbane chased down 257 in a truly bonkers match at the Gabba.

Matt Renshaw and Jack Wildermuth combined for a BBL record 212* run partnership, catapulting their side to the highest successful chase in tournament history and the third highest in T20 cricket.

But for me, it has to be "single-gate."

The most premium overseas player to grace the BBL in recent memory, Babar Azam just never got going for the Sydney Sixers.

Striking at a hugely disappointing 103.06 and passing 50 just once in 10 knocks, his BBL debut will be forever remembered for the wobbly he threw during the Sixers defeat of the Thunder in mid-January.

With Steve Smith flying and Babar struggling for fluency, Smith knocked back a single to ensure he was on strike for the impending power surge.

Babar blanked Smith as the Australian star went on to pummel four consecutive sixes, and then smashed the boundary rope with his bat after being clean bowled in the very next over.

How do you think BBL15 will be remembered?

Of course, we do still have the most consequential match of the tournament remaining...

So, although the bat flip was delayed by those showers, we crucially haven't lost any game time, with play to begin in about 10 minutes, at 7:20pm AEDT and 4:20 in the West.

The Scorchers are out in the middle, taking their marks and rolling their respective arms over.

The smoke from the pre-game fireworks show is beginning to clear.

Not far off now...

For the Sydney Sixers, it has been a long, and at times unlikely, journey to this afternoon's decider.

After losing three of their opening four games, the Magenta clad Sydneysiders fought back to finish second in the regular season, only to be hit with the most convoluted of finals schedules.

The Sixers enter the decider having flown to Brisbane, Perth, Sydney and back to Perth in the space of eight days.

Having only arrived back in WA yesterday afternoon, captain Moises Henreiques pulled out of the pre-game press conference, leaving Scorchers captain Ashton Turner to front the media on his own.

For what it's worth, he didn't seem to think the Sixers taxing travel schedule would impact them too much in the decider.

"I mean, it's annoying no doubt," Turner said of travel burdens in general.

"That time spent travelling can be frustrating, and it can be tiring.

"But to be honest, unless you're one of those players who has a niggle and is touch and go to be match fit to perform … once the game starts and adrenaline kicks in, I don't think it has as big an impact on performance as you'd think."

Come with me on a journey back to the afternoon of January 28, 2012.

Three weeks earlier, Michael Clarke had scored his famous triple century against India at the SCG, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic were a day away from contesting the longest, possibly greatest, grand slam final of all time, and in Perth, the Scorchers and the Sixers were readying themselves for the first BBL final.

It is a transitional match if there ever was one.

The Sydney Sixers boast a playing XI including ageing aces Brett Lee and Stuart MacGill, as well as emerging stars Mitchell Starc, Steve O'Keefe (who also opened the batting that day!) and Moises Henriques.

Oh, and they're captained by some awkward leg spinning allrounder with bleached blonde hair called Steve Smith.

The Perth Scorchers, meanwhile, feature South African legend Herschelle Gibbs, veteran leg spinner Brad Hogg as well as promising allrounder Mitchell Marsh.

Both Henriques and Marsh strike half-centuries in the match, but it is Smith's Sixers who get the better of things at the WACA, triumphing by seven wickets to claim the first BBL title.

Since then, the Sixers and Scorchers have grown into the unquestioned kings of the Big Bash, accounting for over half of its titles between them and meeting in six finals.

Since returning from Test duty, Steve Smith has blown fresh life into both the Sydney Sixers and the BBL as a whole.

He's been at his amusing, enigmatic best across his six innings to date, wearing eye blacks, twitching violently around the crease and playing some truly ridiculous, 360-degree shots.

He's been just about as likely to fall over while attempting to ramp a wide yorker as he has to put a ball on top of the Victor Trumper stand at the SCG.

And his numbers are outrageous.

Smith has scored 275 runs from five knocks, averaging 68.75 and striking at 166.66.

He's made scores of:

19* in a washed-out game against the Hurricanes

100 from 42 balls against the Thunder

54 to help the Sixers past the Heat and into the finals

37 in a team total of 99 in the qualifying final loss to the Scorchers on Tuesday

65 against the Hurricanes in the Challenger

He has been the Sixers' top scorer in all of those innings.

The covers have been off and on in the buildup, with light showers coming and going all afternoon.

It's only raining lightly at the moment, but the covers are firmly in place and the bat flipped has been delayed until they come off.

We'll keep you updated with how everything's progressing.

This is how the forecast looks for the evening.

Hello and welcome to ABC Sport's online coverage of the BBL final between the Sydney Sixers and the Perth Scorchers.

We have a truly mouthwatering contest ahead of us, with the competition's two most successful sides facing off in the decider for the sixth time in 15 seasons.

My name's Henry, and I can't wait to guide you through all the drama.

Sit back, relax and ready yourself for some big, big bashing.

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