BENGALURU: Karnataka have reached the quarterfinals of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy on Tuesday. They have secured that spot as one of the two best second placed team, alongside Himachal Pradesh, in the competition. Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Baroda, Rajasthan, Haryana and Bihar topped their respective groups, helping them qualify directly. All the quarterfinal matches are scheduled to be played at the Sardar Patel Stadium in Ahmedabad, starting January 26.
On Tuesday, Karnataka needed certain results to go in their favour. Haryana defeated Kerala, and a close clash between Madhya Pradesh and Services lowered the former's net run rate despite a win, which worked in Karnataka's favour. After which it boiled down to the final game of the competition, where Rajasthan had to beat Saurashtra in the Elite Group D contest to ensure that the defending champions still remain in the hunt for another domestic T20 title. And it happened with Rajasthan registering an impressive 15 runs win.
This result meant Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh were tied on 16 points each. The former topped the group on the virtue of their head to head record in the competition earlier. Hence, Madhya Pradesh were pushed to second place. With three teams, who were in second place in their respective Elite groups, tied on 16 points, it came down to the NRR. Himachal (0.940) and Karnataka (0.292) pipped Madhya Pradesh (0.285) in the race to the last eight.