A bag of six wickets to paceman Scott Coyte was not enough for New South Wales as they failed to contain the PKF Tasmanian Tigers who shot to the top of the Ryobi Cup ladder at Blundstone Arena on Saturday.

Set 231 to win, the Tigers looked to be cruising at the halfway stage but lost a bundle of wickets to the rampant Coyte before Luke Butterworth (42 not out) steered the home side to victory in style with three boundaries in the 45th over.

Coyte was in inspired form for the visitors, bowling Jon Wells (one) with the fourth ball of the innings and following up with the valuable scalp of Ed Cowan (six) in the third over.

He returned to pick up James Faulkner (nine), Ashton May (zero) and the huge wicket of Tasmanian captain George Bailey for 94 as the hosts began to crumble in a similar manner to the way NSW fell from grace during their innings.

When Coyte had Jason Krejza caught at second slip for a duck, Tasmania had slipped to 7-199 and were looking shaky in pursuit of victory.

But a steady hand from Butterworth and a couple of lusty blows from Brady Jones (16 not out) was enough to get the Tigers over the line with 31 balls to spare.

Bailey had been the mainstay of the Tasmanian innings but was given a huge reprieve on 76, having an lbw decision reversed on video evidence.

Initially given out when hit on the front pad while sweeping Nathan Hauritz, Bailey took off for a single and seemed convinced he'd made contact with the ball on its way through.

Replays suggested the ball had taken the bottom edge of Bailey's bat and the decision was reversed, keeping the Tigers' chase on track.

Mark Cosgrove (52) and Bailey seemed to steady the ship after Coyte's early wickets, pushing the score ahead with a mixture of quick singles and punishing anything loose.

The pair added 82 for the third wicket and looked untroubled in the face of a dual spin attack from NSW, nudging singles and the occasional boundary from both O'Keefe (0-52) and Nathan Hauritz (1-42).

The burly Cosgrove bought up his half-century from 60 balls during the bowling powerplay, but could only add a further two runs before being trapped in front by a Hauritz arm-ball in the 19th over.

Bailey followed suit with his half-century in the 22nd over, bringing up the milestone in even time with consecutive sixes over long-on from Steve Smith's first two deliveries.

The skipper fell six runs short of what would have been a masterful century, smashing a rare wide delivery from Coyte to Smith at point.

The same combination brought Krejza undone, but this time Smith pouched the catch at second slip after being shifted by O'Keefe who could smell a kill as the Tigers began to falter.

But it wasn't to be for the Blues as their disastrous batting collapse eventually cost them the points.

Cruising towards a big score after Usman Khawaja posted a classy century, the Blues lost 6-18 to succumb for just 230.

Krejza had matched Coyte's wicket-taking exploits with six scalps of his own to lead the Tigers' attack and was ably supported by Butterworth (2-46) and Ben Laughlin (2-43).

The Blues will have a chance to atone for the limited overs loss when the two sides meet in a twilight Sheffield Shield match on Monday.