Jammu and Kashmir clinched a historic win by lifting their maiden Ranji Trophy title riding on their first innings lead, after the final against Karnataka ended in a draw at Hubballi on Saturday.
J&K had secured a huge 291-run lead on Friday and dominated the proceedings on the fifth and final day by putting up a dominant show with the bat. Resuming their second innings at 186 for 4, Qamran Iqbal, who was unbeaten on 94 overnight and Sahil Lotra, who was on 16, slammed centuries as J&K extended their overall lead to 633 runs.
J&k were at 342/4 with Iqbal and Lotra batting on 160 and 101 respectively, when the two captains decided to shake hands. J&K had went to lunch at 285 for 4 on day five.
Earlier, replying to J&K’s first innings score of 584, Karnataka were bowled out for 293 with pacer Auqib Nabi claiming five for 54 to put J&K in total control. After bowling out Karnataka, J&K decided not to enforce the follow-on and instead batted to throw Karnataka out of the contest.
This is a landmark victory for Jammu and Kashmir, by clinching their first-ever Ranji Trophy title since they started playing the tournament 67 years ago.
The good things always take time and the wait has been quite too long for J&K cricket. In the past, they had made it to the quarters of 2013-14, 2019-20 and 2024-25 seasons of the Ranji Trophy.
But over the past five days, J&K never looked like a team playing a Ranji Trophy final for the first time, against a team like Karnataka who were eyeing their ninth title. Throughout the seaon, J&K played like a well-oiled team led by some brilliant individual performances.
To list a few such performances, pacer Auqib Nabi comes to mind who was not only brilliant in the final but also the whole season. He also claimed his seventh five-for of the season. Then there was skipper Paras Dogra, who became the second batter to go past 10,000 Ranji Trophy runs. Lothra made a fifty and hundred in the finals.
J&k’s season started with a loss to Mumbai in Srinagar and culminated in a dramatic fashion, nothing sort of a fairytale when they beat Bengal in a thrilling semifinal at Kalyani, and now the eight-time champions Karnataka in the final.
