The Blues will resume on Wednesday with a first innings lead of 45 runs courtesy of a spectacular bowling performance to dismiss WA for a paltry 82.

The two-pronged pace attack of Josh Hazlewood and Doug Bollinger were simply superb, the former collecting career-best figures of 4-14 while the later was equally destructive in his haul of 4-28.

To its credit, WA fought back in the final session, pegging back the run rate while capturing the key scalp of in-form Test star Steve Smith for 48 to leave NSW at 4-127.

The winner of the NSW v WA match is likely to host the final, with fellow joint leaders South Australia struggling in its match with Tasmania.

Tasmania is 2-145 in reply to SA's first innings of 212.

NSW, WA and SA were locked on 26 points before the last round of the competition, with Queensland, on 22 points, still a chance to snatch a finals berth given Victoria is 8-197.

With the SCG unavailable because of Major League Baseball's series between the LA Dodgers and the Arizona Diamondbacks, Manuka Oval will host the final if NSW finishes on top of the table.

Knowing the importance of the game, Hazlewood was delighted with the team's performance.

"The day really couldn't have gone any better, maybe lost a few too many wickets towards the end – all in all, a pretty good day,'' Hazlewood said.

"Not as many demons as the scoreboard reflects, I think a 200 score is probably par.

"We haven't talked too much about [the final], we're concentrating on the processes and getting the results."

The only thing the Blues lost on Tuesday was the toss.

Hazlewood and Bollinger combined to make that irrelevant.

WA was reduced to 5-15, Bollinger disturbing the castle of Test discard Shaun Marsh for a second-ball duck and one-day international representative Adam Voges for two.

Only a gritty 25 from Ashton Turner added some small semblance of credibility to WA's total, which was the ninth-lowest in the state's history.

Adding to WA's troubles is a suspected broken toe to veteran batsman Marcus North,√ who went to hospital for X-rays on Tuesday night.

"It wasn't the conditions, we had one of our worst days of the season with the bat. Unfortunately, it had to be day one of this game,'' North said.

"Sometimes when it goes bad, it goes really bad.

"There's no point worrying about that now."

North is refusing to throw in the towel, pointing to a resilient performance from his side's bowlers, most notably former Test spinner Ashton Agar (2-51) as proof all is not lost.

"The way we pulled back at the back end of the game is a big start to day two,'' he said.

"One poor day, even though it was getting bowled out for 80-odd, does put you behind the eight ball.

"There's still three days of tough cricket to play to get the result."