You can get the index of anything by just calling
QModelIndex indexOfTheCellIWant = model->index(row, column, parentIndex);
Then you can call setCurrentIndex(indexOfTheCellIWant)
as bruno said in his answer.
If model contains just a standard list of items as opposed to a tree structure, then it's even easier. Because we can assume that the item is a root item - no parent.
QModelIndex indexOfTheCellIWant = model->index(row, column);
With a tree structure it is a little trickier, because we can't just specify a row and a column, we need to specify these with respect to a parent. If you need to know about this part let me know and I'll explain more.
Only one more thing to note. Selection is based on cells, not really rows. So if you want to ensure that when the user selects a cell (or you do through code) that the whole row is selected you can do that by setting the "selectionBehavior" on the itself.
list->setSelectionBehavior(QAbstractItemView::SelectRows);