WATCH- J&K’s Auqib Nabi demolishes Karnataka; dismisses Rahul, Karun and Smaran for cheap in Ranji Trophy final

J&K batted first and posted 584 runs in first innings.

The ongoing final of the Ranji Trophy 2025-26 tournament between Jammu and Kashmir and Karnataka has taken a very interesting turn. The match that began on February 24 at the KSCA Hubli Cricket Ground, Hubli, marked the first time J&K played in the final of the India Elite FC tournament.

J&K captain Paras Dogra won the all-important toss and decided to bat first. Yawer Hassan scored 88, while Shubman Pundir made 121 to give a solid start to the J&K innings, and other batters just piled on the runs. Paras Dogra made 72, Abdul Samad made 61, Kanhaiya Wadhawan made 70, and Sahil Lotra made 72 runs as J&K aimed at taking a first-innings lead.

The tail wagged as Abid Mushtaq (28) and Yudhvir Singh (30) took J&K to 584 in the first innings. Prasidh Krishna took 5/98 for Karnataka.

Karnataka had hoped for a good start to their innings, but J&K pacer Auqib Nabi had other ideas. He began by dismissing ace opener KL Rahul for just 13 runs. While Mayank Agarwal and Devdutt Padikkal tried to stabilize the innings, Sunil Kumar dismissed Padikkal.

Auqib Nabi came back strong to dismiss Karun Nair for a duck, and then Ravichandran Smaran was dismissed for a golden duck. This left Karnataka at 94/4 in 29 overs at the time of writing this piece.

Check out the wickets here: