New Delhi, Jan 20 (IANS): Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh pipped Madhya Pradesh as the second best placed teams to the quarter-finals of the T20 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. Karanataka, Himachal Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh -- all in different groups -- had the highest number of points among all the second-placed elite teams at the end of the round-robin league at the group stage.

However, Himachal and Karnataka's superior net run rate of 0.940 and 0.292 respectively compared to Madhya Pradesh's 0.285 allowed them to go through to the quarter-finals.

Table-toppers of the five Elite groups and the Plate group gain automatic qualification, along with two second-placed teams from the Elite groups.

The first and second quarter-finals will be played on January 26 while the third and fourth is scheduled for January 27. The Indian cricket board has still not issued pairings of the quarter-final matches.

All knock out stage matches and the final will be played at Ahmedabad's Motera Stadium.

The teams that have qualified for the quarter-finals are:

Elite A topper: Punjab

Elite B topper: Tamil Nadu

Elite C topper: Baroda

Elite D topper: Rajasthan

Elite E topper: Haryana

Plate Topper: Bihar

Second placed teams from Elite groups: Karnataka (Elite A), Himachal Pradesh (Elite C)