The league stage of Ranji Trophy 2018-19 season finally came to an end on Thursday (January 10), with eight teams making way to the quarterfinals. The next round of the tournament will begin on 15th January featuring Vidarbha, Saurashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and Uttarakhand.

Here’s how the line-up for quarterfinals look like:

Vidarbha vs Uttarakhand

Saurashtra vs Uttar Pradesh

Kerala vs Gujarat

Karnataka vs Rajasthan

Rajasthan was the only team to book a spot for the quarterfinal before the last league round. Kerala made it through after playing a thrilling match against Himachal Pradesh. Kerala chased down a 295-run target on the last day of the league stage.

Saurashtra will get a massive boost for the quarterfinal clash against Uttar Pradesh as India’s eminent No. 3 Cheteshwar Pujara returns to the fold. Pujara played an instrumental role in India’s recent Test series triumph down under with 521 runs including three centuries.

Meanwhile, Punjab couldn’t qualify for the next round after playing a draw against Bengal. As per the points earned, five teams were supposed to make it to the quarter-finals this year while two from group C and one from group D were supposed to join them for the last eight stage.

In a strange circumstance, however, Vidarbha (29 points), Saurashtra (29 points), Karnataka (27 points), Gujarat (26 points) qualified from group A while Kerala (26 points) with more wins (4) than Baroda (26 points, 3 wins) have qualified from group B.

(With inputs from The Indian Express)