Inter-state 50-over competition: Five quarterfinal spots up for grabs on last day of league stage

The inter-state 50-over competition has been keenly contested so far. While Railways, Andhra Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh have secured their quarterfinal berths, there are still theoretically five places up for grabs before the last day of the league stages on December 20.



The best five teams combined will qualify from Group A and B, while the top two sides from Group C and the Plate Group topper will make it to the knockouts. A total of 11 out of the 36 teams have already played their eighth and final league match, and there are still 12 games to go. The results of some of these matches will decide the line-up for the knockouts. Here is the best possible scenarios for the teams in the fray.



Group A and B



Railways



Railways, led by Mithali Raj, are the table-toppers with 28 points from seven games. They have won six and another was washed out. They would want to beat Haryana in their last league game and finish as the only team in this group with 30-plus points. They will meet the Plate Group qualifier in the quarterfinal.



Andhra Pradesh



Andhra Pradesh have won six of their seven games and have 24 points with a net run-rate (NRR) of +0.497. A win against Maharashtra in their last league game will assure them of a second spot, which would match-up them against the second-ranked team from Group C in the quarterfinal. Even if their match is rained out Andhra will still finish second on the table with 26 points.



Bengal



Jhulan Goswami’s Bengal, who finished runners-up in the Plate Group last season, are third on the table with 20 points from seven games. Their NRR is +1.001; the second-best behind +2.483 of Railways.



If they beat Tripura then they will automatically go through to the quarterfinals. Unless they lose by a really significant margin that shakes up the table, their healthy NRR will allow them to finish as one of the top five teams even with five wins.



Delhi



Delhi, the last season’s Twenty20 champions who are without Rumeli Dhar because she was recalled by Railways, finished with 20 points from eight matches, and are currently fourth on the table with a NRR of +0.679. They can only hope either of Mumbai and Baroda, who have the same points but are fifth and sixth on the table because of inferior NRR, lose against Gujarat and Karnataka respectively. In a best-case scenario they would want both the results to go their way and also Tripura to get past Bengal. Then they will still retain their fourth position.



Mumbai



Jemimah Rodrigues’s match-winning 133* against Bengal gave Mumbai a lifeline, and they would fancy their chances against Gujarat, who are yet to win a game. The equation is simple for them: finish with 24 points and stay back in Bangalore for the knockouts.



Their current NRR is +0.579, but that becomes irrelevant from a qualification perspective if they beat Gujarat for their sixth win. If they lose to Gujarat, then they would also want Baroda more specifically and Bengal to an extent to end up on the losing side as after that it will become a battle of NRR.



Baroda



Radha Yadav-led Baroda, whose NRR is +0.333, have been impressive in their five wins. But the 130-run loss against Bengal could come back to haunt them if they don’t get past Karnataka, who have picked pace with two wins in their previous two games.



A win against Karnataka will propel them to 24 points, and that will rule out any other permutation and combination.



Punjab have 20 points from eight games, and Karnataka could also end up with a similar tally if they beat Baroda. Their NRRs, however, are not strong enough to even give them a backdoor entry.



If Bengal, Mumbai and Baroda win their respective matches then they will push Delhi out of the race and join Railways and Andhra to complete the qualifying lineup from Group A and B,



Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Kerala, Vidarbha, Goa, Haryana, Tripura, Saurashtra and Gujarat are the other teams in Group A and B.



Group C



Himachal Pradesh



Sushma Verma’s Himachal Pradesh are the only team to have won all their matches in the competition so far. With 28 points from seven games, they would want to finish the league stage with another win in a top of the table clash against Uttar Pradesh. A defeat, however, won’t take them down.



Uttar Pradesh



For all practical purposes, Uttar Pradesh have already qualified with five wins in seven matches. Their NRR is a healthy +0.511, the second-best in the group behind Himachal’s +1.549. Unless they lose to Himachal drastically then Odisha, who have a game left, will not have a chance even if they finish with a win.



Odisha



Currently Madhya Pradesh and Hyderabad, who have 18 points each from eight matches, are third and fourth on the table. Odisha have a chance to finish ahead of them with 20 points if they beat Jammu and Kashmir. They would, however have to beat J&K; and hope Uttar Pradesh lose to Himachal by big margins for their NRR of -0.291 to get better and that of the second-ranked team to go below theirs.



Madhya Pradesh, Hyderabad, Jharkhand, Assam, Rajasthan and J&K; are the other teams in Group C.



Plate Group



Cricket Association of Pondicherry



Pondicherry are one of the three teams tied at the top of the table with 24 points from seven games, but have six wins, which makes them the first-ranked. Uttarakhand too have six wins, but their NRR is +1.434, while Pondicherry’s is +1.730.



Pondicherry need to beat Meghalaya, who are the third team with 24 points but are No.3 on the table because they have five wins and have been a part of one tied encounter and one washed out match.



A loss to Meghalaya will end their journey.



Team Uttarakhand



Uttarakhand will fancy to beat Arunachal Pradesh, who have so far won one game, and secure 28 points. Then they would hope that Meghalaya beat Pondicherry for them to finish on top of the table. If Pondicherry beat Meghalaya then they would be hoping the margin to be such that their NRR gets better than them.



Meghalaya



Meghalaya winning against Pondicherry will give them 28 points, but for them to progress Arunachal Pradesh has to beat Uttarakhand. Meghalaya’s NRR of +2.123 is the best among three teams in the running, but since they have one less win they are dependent on Arunachal Pradesh.



If Meghalaya, the only team in the group to not have lost a game yet, don’t go ahead then they will look back at their game against Sikkim. They allowed Ananya Upendran, the pace-bowling allrounder, to make an unbeaten 157 as an opener and then defend six runs in the final over for the competition’s only tie so far.



The outside route for Meghalaya to qualify is if Uttarakhand's match does not get completed because of rain and they beat Pondicherry.



If both the matches are affected by rain, then it will be a battle of NRR between Pondicherry and Uttarakhand as all three teams will be tied on 26 points.



Nagaland, Manipur, Sikkim, Bihar, Arunachal Pradesh and Cricket Association of Mizoram are the other teams in the Plate Group.