No quarters given

Only three quarter-final places have been sealed going into the final round of Super League matches. Two others will be taken by teams coming up from the Plate League, which will be decided through the Plate semi-finals that will be played at the same time as the seventh round of league matches. Bengal will take on Goa and Himachal Pradesh will face Madhya Pradesh in the Plate League semi-finals. That leaves three spots still up for grabs, with five teams fighting for them. One of them, Uttar Pradesh, will not even be playing in the last round. Cricinfo looks at possible scenarios, and what these teams need to do to make it to the next round.

Cheteshwar Pujara will look to guide Saurashtra to the quarter-finals, preferably via the surest way: an outright win with a bonus point © Cricinfo Ltd

Group A

Mumbai and Gujarat are already through, and the fight for third place is between Saurashtra and Delhi. Saurashtra currently lead Delhi by one point, both have the same number of outright wins, and Saurashtra have a much better run-quotient.

Saurashtra, 18 points, face Hyderabad in Rajkot

• They are the one team who can manage to qualify without having to keep an eye on what Delhi do.
• If they win with a bonus point, they would have put it across Delhi.
• If they win without a bonus point, Delhi would need to win with a bonus point to force a tie. In that case, Saurashtra could benefit from their superior run-quotient at present: 1.440, as opposed to Delhi's 0.926.
• In other cases, Saurashtra need do only as well as Delhi do, and they will be through.
• Even if Saurashtra lose their match, they have an outside chance if Delhi manage only one point from their match.

Delhi, 17 points, face Rajasthan in Jaipur

• No matter what Delhi do, they will have to wait for the result in Rajkot.
• Even if they win with a bonus point, a win for Saurashtra can force a tie.
• If they win without a bonus point, they would have to hope Saurashtra do not win their match.
• If they manage only a first-innings lead, Saurashtra must concede the first-innings lead in their match.
• If they concede a first-innings lead, Saurashtra have to lose outright, and the matter is decided by run-quotient.
• If they lose outright, there is no way they can advance.

Punjab, 12 points, face Mumbai in Mumbai
A far-fetched thought, if ever there was one. If they beat group leaders Mumbai with a bonus point, they would equal Saurashtra's current tally, 18. And there can be a tied scenario, if both Saurashtra and Delhi fail to score, or Saurashtra fail to score and Delhi get only one point. And Punjab will come out the best out of that tie, because they would have registered three wins (Delhi and Saurashtra have two). Surely even Punjab will not be thinking such thoughts, though.

Group B

Only Tamil Nadu have made it through so far. Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka are frontrunners for the other two spots, but Railways haven't been knocked out completely.

UP, 17 points, don't have a game left

• Still they will fancy their chances because they lead the next two teams by three points and six points respectively.
• The only way they can be knocked out is if Railways beat Tamil Nadu with a bonus point. In that case, Railways will be tied with UP, but will qualify by the virtue of one more win than UP.
• Even in that unlikely scenario, UP can go through if Karnataka fail to get a first-innings lead against Maharashtra. But if Karnataka get the lead, and are consequently tied with UP, Karnataka will pip them because of more wins.

Karnataka, 14 points, play Maharashtra in Bangalore

• It should be an easy game for Karnataka, and a win should not be a surprising result. That will clearly take them through.
• Even a first-innings lead will be enough for them to qualify because in a tied scenario they will score over UP, owing to more outright wins.
• Even if they don't get a lead or lose the match, they can still qualify if Railways and Baroda don't win their matches.

Railways, 11 points, play Tamil Nadu in Chennai

• Nothing less than a win will do for Railways. Because they have to go past Karnataka - if both of them are tied at 14, Karnataka will go through because of more wins.
• A win with a bonus point will surely carry them through, because if they are tied with UP at 17, they will have more wins.
• In case they win without a bonus point, and consequently fall behind UP, they would have to hope Karnataka don't get a first-innings lead.

Baroda, 9 points, play Andhra in Vadodara

• Talk of outside chances. They will have to win their match and also hope that Karnataka don't get a single point from their match, and also that Railways don't win theirs. It will be a real convoluted surprise if Baroda do manage to go through.

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