The up-and-down Sydney Thunder will play host to the second-placed Perth Scorchers at the Sydney Showground Stadium on Monday night.
Perth captain Aaron Hardie won the bat flip and elected to send the Thunder in.
The Scorchers lost their first game in 11 BBL matches when handed a nine-wicket defeat from the Adelaide Strikers last start.
Thunder opener Cameron Bancroft will face his former side for the first time after being jettisoned by the Scorchers despite starring for them in their BBL-winning campaign last summer.
Thunder vs. Scorchers: scores, stats, video
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Bancroft admits he is grateful his first game against his former club is being played in Sydney and not Perth.
“I’d hate to know what I’d cop if the game was at Optus Stadium,” Bancroft joked when speaking to Fox Cricket pre-match.
“Looking forward to it. I have a good relationship with all these guys. Just looking forward to getting out into the middle to compete.”
Bancroft is leading all Thunder batsmen for runs this tournament with 220.
With a win, the Scorchers will guarantee another finals appearance, and move to second, within three points of the league-leading Brisbane Heat, who booked their finals tickets on Sunday night after defeating the Hurricanes.
With just one win from six games, the Thunder are still a chance of finishing top four, but will essentially need to win all four of their remaining games to be a hope.
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FINAL TEAMS
Thunder: Alex Hales, Cameron Bancroft, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Matthew Gilkes (wk), Oliver Davies, Alex Ross, Daniel Sams, Nathan McAndrew, Chris Green (c), Gurinder Sandhu, Tanveer Sangha
Scorchers: Zak Crawley, Sam Whiteman, Aaron Hardie (c), Josh Inglis (wk), Laurie Evans, Cooper Connolly, Ashton Agar, Jhye Richardson, Andrew Tye, Hamish McKenzie, Lance Morris
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