How do New Zealand find themselves here again, within reach of another ICC crown?

Trans-Tasman rivals Australia and New Zealand both chase their first men's Twenty20 World Cup triumph when they collide in the final at Dubai International Cricket Stadium.

Aaron Finch and the Australians enter as favourites, hunting down the one major trophy that has eluded them. Only once has Australia reached this stage, hauled out by England in 2010.

Monday morning [AEDT] looms as their greatest shot. Few had given them a chance, and now Justin Langer's side is on the verge of adding the final piece of the puzzle to one of the game's richest histories.

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Standing in their way is New Zealand in their first trip to a Twenty20 final.

It would be easy to say a country with a population of 4.9 million has no right to keep pushing past nations where cricket is more so a religion than a hobby into the sports' grandest stages. Yet they do.

The smallest of cricket's 12 Test-playing nations has entered its golden age. New Zealand were the first to lift the World Test Championship trophy after surging home over India in Southampton.

The Black Caps have fallen short at the final hurdle of the past two 50-over World Cups, stopped only by a risible boundary countback and a rampant Australian bowling attack.

They operate on a budget resembling a 10^th of what cricket's perennial heavyweights have at their disposal but on the park keep finding ways to rise above the odds.

A win on Monday morning would not necessarily vanquish the ghosts of 2015, when Mitchell Starc skittled Brendon McCullum with his fifth ball to lift the MCG crowd as one.

Nor would it dispel the agony suffered four years later when England seized the one-day World Cup final on account of Ben Stokes' heroics, a tied super over and a farcical rulebook.

Though few could begrudge them the opportunity to lift another trophy, so stirring has their rise been.

Victory in Monday's final against Australia would mean more than adding another prize to the trophy cabinet. One gets the sense it would be a nod to those who have gone before captain Kane Williamson and his teammates.

It would be for Chris Cairns, the great Kiwi all-rounder who is undergoing the fight of his life in Canberra as he recovers following a rare aortic dissection and a spinal stroke.

For McCullum, whose dream of skippering his side to a World Cup win was once dashed by Australia; Stephen Fleming, who skippered the Black Caps in that first Twenty20 against their rivals from across the Tasman back in February 2005; and even Devon Conway, the wicketkeeper ruled out of the final after breaking his hand when he punched his bat after being dismissed in a semi-final triumph over England.

To do so they must overcome an Australian side peaking at the right time, one that has flipped the Twenty20 script on its head and turned to experience over a flood of youth.

Think semi-final saviour Matthew Wade, who has prolonged his international career if only for a few days. Or David Warner, discarded by his IPL franchise in a poor campaign. He posted scores of 0 and 1 in Australia's warm-up games.

Yet the 35-year-old left-hander is Australia's leading run-scorer and fourth overall at the tournament, scoring 236 runs at an average of 47 with a strike rate of 148, in an ominous sign for Tim Southee and co.

Leg-spinner Adam Zampa is on the verge of one of Australia's finest individual performances at any World Cup. His average of 10.91 over six matches is the lowest of all specialist Australian spinners in either format at World Cups.

Lift the trophy and Australia's revival is the stuff of legend. Lose, and the memories fade.

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