Jammu and Kashmir, which performed brilliantly in the Ranji Trophy 2025-26 season, seems to be reaching its beautiful end. In the final against Karnataka, after making a big score in the first innings on the strength of its batsmen, Jammu and Kashmir’s bowlers also gave an equally good start. In particular, Aaqib Nabi, who proved to be the best fast bowler throughout the season, wreaked havoc in the finals as well, giving Karnataka a shock in the beginning. Karnataka’s star opener KL Rahul, captain Devdutt Padikkal and veteran batsman Karun Nair returned to the pavilion cheaply in the first innings.
in Hubli, Karnataka ranji trophy final The top order of the host team disintegrated badly on the third day. After Jammu and Kashmir made a big score of 584 runs in the first innings, Karnataka team, which came to bat, also expected a similar response from its batsmen. But its batsmen, who had experience in international cricket, failed in this and lost 4 wickets for just 57 runs, which also included stars like semi-final hero KL Rahul and Ravichandran Smaran.
Veterans including Rahul fell in front of the prophet.
As per expectations, even in the final, fast bowler Aaqib Nabi proved to be a problem for the batsmen. This pacer from Jammu and Kashmir, who had already taken 55 wickets this season before the final, made it difficult for Karnataka’s top order to stay at the crease. He started it by taking the wicket of the team’s biggest batsman and the star of the Indian cricket team, KL Rahul, who was caught by the wicketkeeper and walked away. After some time, in the 17th over, Nabi’s fellow pacer Sunil Kumar dismissed Karnataka captain Devdutt Padikkal.
As soon as Padikkal was out, there was a fall of the wicket and Aaqib Nabi became the reason for this. This right-arm pacer made Karnataka’s situation difficult by taking consecutive wickets on the last two balls of the 18th over. First of all, Nabi clean bowled Karun Nair on a beautiful ball and then on the next ball, new batsman Smaran was sent back to the pavilion without opening the account. In this way, Karnataka lost 3 wickets in the space of just 1 run and the team went on the back foot.
J&K’s big score in the first innings
Earlier, the third day started with Jammu and Kashmir leading with the score of 527 runs. The team had 4 wickets left and its eyes were on reaching 600 runs. The team came close to this but could not cross this figure. The reason for this was fast bowler Prasidh Krishna, who took 2 wickets in the first session of the third day itself and completed his 5 wickets in this innings. In this way, the first innings of Jammu and Kashmir ended at 584 runs.