The Bash Boost goes
The twelfth season, from 13 December 2022 to 4 February 2023, dropped the Bash Boost bonus point that had been introduced two years earlier and had put a losing side into the finals in 2021-22. Wins were again worth two points. The Power Surge and the X-Factor substitute stayed. The league stage remained a full double round-robin of 56 matches, and the five-team finals series was used for the fourth and last time. Attendance recovered to 1,019,891.
Fifteen all out
On 16 December at Sydney Showground Stadium, Adelaide Strikers made 139 for 9 and then bowled Sydney Thunder out for 15 in 35 balls. It was the lowest completed innings in men's professional Twenty20 cricket at the time and the shortest, and Henry Thornton took 5 for 3. Sydney Thunder recovered sufficiently to finish fourth, but were bowled out for 62 by Sydney Sixers in January as well.
At the other extreme, Adelaide Strikers chased 230 against Hobart Hurricanes at Adelaide Oval, winning with three balls to spare, Matt Short making 100 not out. Short finished the summer as player of the tournament. Steve Smith, playing his only full Big Bash League season, made 101 against Adelaide and 125 not out against Sydney Thunder within four days.
Aaron Hardie of Perth Scorchers was the leading run-scorer with 460, a modest figure by the standards of the seasons either side of it, and Sean Abbott took 29 wickets for Sydney Sixers.
The finals
Perth Scorchers won eleven of fourteen and Sydney Sixers ten, the two clearly the best sides of the league stage. Melbourne Renegades and Sydney Thunder qualified on seven wins each, and Brisbane Heat took fifth on six.
Brisbane then won three finals matches in eight days. They beat Sydney Thunder by eight runs on the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method in a rain-hit Eliminator, Melbourne Renegades by seven wickets in the Knockout at Docklands, and Sydney Sixers by four wickets at the Sydney Cricket Ground in a low-scoring Challenger, chasing 117 with ten balls to spare. Michael Neser took the award in that match.
Perth had beaten Sydney Sixers by seven wickets in the Qualifier at home and so were waiting.
The final
Perth Stadium, 4 February. Brisbane Heat made 175 for 7. Perth Scorchers reached 178 for 5 in 19.2 overs, Ashton Turner taking the match award for the second time in the finals series. It was Perth's fifth title in twelve seasons and their second in succession; no other club had then won more than three.
Afterwards
The 2022-23 season was the last played over a 56-match league stage. From 2023-24 the competition was cut to 40 league matches and a four-team finals series, ending a decade of expansion.