Mitchell Marsh's half-century and three wickets from Brydon Carse helped SunRisers Leeds take a big step towards the men's Hundred eliminator with a crushing 71-run victory over Welsh Fire.
Australian Marsh hit eight boundaries, including three sixes, in a 34-ball 50 as he shared an opening partnership of 89 with Ryan Rickelton at Headingley.
South African Rickelton made 40 off 22 deliveries for the second-placed SunRisers, while Harry Brook, captain Zak Crawley and Dan Lawrence contributed 23, 34 and 29 respectively in a total of 201-4.
Opener Matthew Short top-scored for Fire with 43 before being caught by Brook as Carse, who finished with figures of 3-24, claimed his second wicket after removing Phil Salt for 13.
Joe Root added 31 from 22 balls but the visitors fell well short, finishing on 130-6 as their hopes of a top-three finish suffered a major setback.
Meerkat Match Hero Mitchell Marsh said: "In the powerplay it felt like a really good wicket. Once the ball got older, it became tough to bat. The way we adapted with the ball; the guys executed brilliantly."
SunRisers are all but mathematically guaranteed a place in at least the eliminator on Friday and still potentially have a chance of overtaking leaders Trent Rockets by finishing first and going straight into Sunday's final at Lord's.
They travel to Emirates Old Trafford to play Manchester Super Giants on Tuesday.
Welsh Fire meanwhile will need to win their final group match at home against London Spirit on Wednesday and better the final results of both MI London, who play Birmingham Phoenix later that evening, and Super Giants if they are to make it into the top three.
Liam Livingstone and Dewald Brevis both hit half-centuries to steer London Spirit's men to a seven-wicket win against Birmingham Phoenix at Lord's.
Spirit captain Livingstone launched four sixes and hit seven fours in a 30-ball 66 and Brevis struck three sixes and five fours in an unbeaten 55 as the home side cruised to 166-3 with 18 balls to spare after restricting Phoenix to 162-4.
It was Spirit's second win in seven matches this season and they remain second bottom of the table, four points above basement side Phoenix, who have won only once in the competition this season.
After being put into bat, Phoenix lost three wickets for 46 runs off 44 deliveries before opener Joe Clarke (73) and Sean Dickson (51 not out) put on 92 for the fourth wicket.
Clarke was caught by Livingstone off Henry Crocombe, leaving Phoenix on 138-4 with nine deliveries remaining, and skipper Donovan Ferreira struck 14 not out off five balls to help add 24 runs to their total.
Watch every match of The Hundred through to the finals on Sunday August 16.
