Auqib Nabi picked up a seven-wicket haul to help Jammu and Kashmir take a crucial first-innings lead in the Ranji Trophy quarter-finals against Madhya Pradesh.
Batting first, J&K were undone by right-arm pacer Kuldeep Sen, who picked up a five-wicket haul, his third in the format, to skittle them out for 194 in Indore. Opener Shubham Khajuria top-scored with a 60, but didn’t find much help from other batters.
He was the third wicket to fall with J&K at 109, and they were soon reduced to 136-8. But a crucial 42-run stand between No.9 Vanshraj Sharma (16) and No.10 Yudhvir Singh (41) took them to a more respectable 194 in the third session on day one.
Auqib Nabi runs through Madhya Pradesh
Nabi, in reply, struck early on day two, taking two wickets in his second over of the day. Sunil Kumar got the better of Shubham Sharma before Nabi removed MP captain Rajat Patidar to reduce them to 54-4, still 150 behind J&K’s total.
Venkatesh Iyer (22) and Yash Dubey (58) stabilised the innings, adding 51 runs for the sixth wicket when Nabi returned to have the former caught behind. Dubey still held one end, and even at 136-5, MP were in with a chance to take the first-innings lead, but Kumar’s dismissal of the MP opener opened the floodgates.
2nd Quarter Final, Madhya Pradesh vs Jammu and Kashmir
vs
- Ball by ball Over
Nabi got Aryan Pandey and Ramveer Gurjar on consecutive balls of the next over to reduce them to 137-8, before his pace-bowling partner took his third of the match in the over after that as J&K picked up three wickets in eight deliveries. Now the top wicket-taker in the ongoing Ranji season, Nabi took the last wicket to finish with figures of 7-40.
This was his second seventh-wicket haul of the season after a 7-24 against Rajasthan, and a fourth five-for. He now has 41 wickets in eight games, putting him third on the wicket-takers list for the 2025/26 Ranji Trophy. He had also taken 44 wickets in the last season of India’s premier first-class tournament.
Also read: 68 wickets at 13.8: How India A selection works, and why Auqib Nabi hasn’t been picked yet
Image credits: BCCI/X
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