Central Districts and Auckland -- both stacked with power hitting lineups to make any baseball team proud -- will fight it out for easily the most lucrative prize on offer in the local game, with the winners at Pukekura Park to take part in the mega-rich Champions League in India later this year.
Given the fickle nature of Twenty20 cricket, it would be no surprise if heartbeats are racing in both dressing rooms before the finale of the popular month-long competition is played out.
Auckland coach Paul Strang says his players won't hide from the rewards up for grabs but doesn't expect it to affect them.
"Everyone's aware of the prize on offer, we acknowledge it and then you move on and not get distracted by it," he told NZPA.
"Match temperament comes into it, a final is a final and all bets are off. Confidence, momentum and self-belief all play a big part and we've got that in spades at the moment."
Strang, the former Zimbabwe leg spinner who plied his trade best in the longer form of the game, happily admits his senior players have a better grasp of the nuances of Twenty20 cricket than he does.
After losing their first two games of the campaign, they stormed home employing flexible tactics for each opponent that he and a senior group of players would rapidly devise.
"The nature of the competition and how every game rolls around so quickly, it's pretty hard to do too much coaching. A lot of the guys need to be congratulated for making the little changes they needed to.
"I'm all for individuality, playing with flair and taking responsibility for themselves.
"For them, this final is just another road block that has to circumnavigated. I'm confident we have the resources but this should be a cracker of a game."
Crowd members reclining in the ground's famous terraces had better not take their eye off the ball, such is the aerial boundary barrage likely to unfold over its short boundaries.
Central, who played and won their first three games of the competition at Pukekura Park, posted giant winning scores of 208 and 189 in two of them.
Prominent in both was Ross Taylor, New Zealand's premier batsman and regarded as one of world cricket's best Twenty20 exponents.
Supported by the likes of Mathew Sinclair, Peter Ingram, Jamie How, Jacob How and Graham Napier, Central present a formidable lineup.
In the blue corner, Auckland's best bet for a matchwinning knock is New Zealand opener Martin Guptill, who sits alongside New Zealand stars Taylor and Otago's Brendon McCullum in topping the competition's averages -- all in the early 40s and all at breakneck strike rates.
Other key Auckland batsmen are Lou Vincent, Scott Styris, Ravi Bopara and Anaru Kitchen, while Strang speaks fondly of captain Gareth Hopkins' tactical nous
Strang can't explain why his side have gone from first class champions a year ago to last place at the halfway stage of this summer's Plunket Shield yet are leading the current one-day competition and have reached the Twenty20 final.
He has been impressed with the crowds and agrees with veteran allrounder Oram, who this week said the Twenty20 championship is the most enjoyable domestic competition he has been involved in.
"It's certainly good for the game, although I don't know about my heart," Strang said.
"The majority of our games have got down to the 19th or 20th over and have ebbed and flowed. Critics who say it's one-dimensional have been put in their place in my opinion."
Top qualifiers Central will start favourites although Auckland will be buoyed by squeezing narrow wins in both games between the teams in the regular season.
The match is scheduled to start at 1.30pm.
