A stunning fightback with the ball has put Weston Creek Molonglo in the box seat to claim a spot in the Cricket ACT Douglas Cup grand final as they hunt for back-to-back titles.

Tuggeranong have slumped to 9-106 at stumps in pursuit of Creek's 195, leaving the minor premiers to search for a huge semi-final turnaround when play resumes on day two at Chisholm Oval on Sunday.

For much of Saturday it seemed Creek's premiership defence would go up in smoke, bundled out for just 195 with John Rogers (108) "leading from the front as he always does".

Tuggeranong looked set to cruise towards a first innings lead as they brought up 50 without loss. But from the moment Sam Taylor struck to remove Tom Vane Tempest (18), this contest had a pulse.

Taylor (3-24), Dan McLean (3-10) and Djali Bloomfield (3-38) split the honours as Tuggeranong went from 0-50 to 9-106 in two hours of madness late on the opening day.

But a lead of 89 does little to comfort McLean heading into the second day.

"Even if we get that wicket early, if they get us all out quickly, they’ll have plenty of time to chase those runs down and win. Then it won’t matter what we did in the first innings because we will have lost the game," McLean said.

"It is still really important that we keep bowling good balls and get that last wicket, and then we’ve just got to try to bat for as long as we can, score as many runs as we can, and it’d be fantastic to top it off with a win.

"It was pretty crazy. Early on we just wanted to bat first and play to our strengths, which is to put a good total on the board and then put them under pressure.

"I don’t think the total was what we wanted, but we were able to take early wickets and keep pressuring. Djali was amazing, and Harry [Medhurst] and Tubby [Taylor] as well, all the bowlers were great. It is pretty crazy, nine wickets for the day, we weren’t really expecting that.

"I knew we’ve got a great group of bowlers, I knew they weren’t going to give up and they would just keep pressuring."

Meanwhile, Ginninderra's hopes of a drought-breaking Douglas Cup final appearance rest in the hands of their batsmen in their clash with Western District-UC at Jamison Oval.

Wests player-coach Blake Dean (79) stood firm at the top of the order amidst a Michael Ninneman blitz (4-63) as the hosts registered 252 in the first innings.

Ginninderra opener Jordie Misic (33 not out) got off to a flyer as the Tigers took a fair chunk out of the total late on day one to finish at 1-65.

The success-starved Tigers are hunting for their first Douglas Cup grand final ticket since they last won the grand prize in 1992-93. So close they can almost taste it, Ginninderra's wait could be over in a matter of hours.

AT A GLANCE

Saturday: Stumps, day one - WESTERN DISTRICT-UC 252 (B Dean 79, J Cooke 61; M Ninneman 4-63, J Hatton 2-38) v GINNINDERRA 1-65 (J Misic 33*, A Sharma 15; N Ada 1-25, M Minns 0-2) at Jamison Oval. Play resumes at 11am on Sunday.

WESTON CREEK MOLONGLO 195 (J Rogers 108, S Myburgh 25; S Devoy 4-46, J Floros 4-49) v TUGGERANONG 9-106 (T Floros 36, T Vane Tempest 18; D McLean 3-10, S Taylor 3-24) at Chisholm Oval. Play resumes at 11am on Sunday.