Man of the match Jason Krejza admitted feeling nervous as the Tasmania closed on their victory target of 231 against New South Wales at Blundstone Arena on Saturday.

Krejza starred with the ball, taking 6-55 to help restrict the visitors to just 230 after Usman Khawaja had posted an even 100.

But when he was caught at second slip for a duck and the Tigers slipped to 7-199, the off-spinner had to watch on as Luke Butterworth and Brady Jones pushed the home side across the line.

"I hate that stuff, it's horrible," Krejza said of the dying overs.

"You see 30 on the board and there was a lot of time in the game, they had a lot of time to get the wickets they needed to so I'm glad we held it together."

The win pushes the Tigers to the top of the Ryobi Cup ladder and puts them in the box seat to claim a home final if they can win in their last match against the Queensland Bulls on February 15.

"We've just got to get better from this game. They're obviously going to come hard and we want to keep that top spot. If we play well next game a home final will be fantastic," Krejza said.

"We've just got to get better next game, gel together more than we did this game. We did really well but I think we can get better."

While both sides lost early wickets to fast bowling and NSW paceman Scott Coyte matched Krejza's effort with six wickets of his own, the nature of the Blundstone Arena pitch meant slow bowlers were always going to have big a role to play.

"It looked like it would be (that) the spinner could play a big role in the game," Krejza said. "Their spinners did, they kept the runs down, but I'm pretty happy."

He said bowling a full length was key to his wicket-taking exploits and was also vital in trying to minimise scoring.

"With that slower wicket, most of the bowlers had to be up to the bat and keep them driving. Keeping that full length was the better area to go. Their spinners did the same thing and kept it nice and full to the bat, anything short was sitting up."

As it was, the Blues were well short of a defendable score as the Tigers reached their 231-run target with five overs to spare.

But with Khawaja firing alongside Nic Maddinson and Steve Smith in the middle-order, the Blues had looked capable of a far larger score before losing 6-18 to stumble badly in the dying stages.

"When they were going through middle there with Usman (Khawaja), they were looking more than that (230)," Krejza said.

"But from the powerplay onwards we pegged them back really nicely with a couple of tight overs. Ben Laughlin bowled nicely through there and that's probably what won us, kept them to 230, because it was still quite a tough chase on a slower wicket."