Ranji wrap: J&K’s Nabi sets up a thrilling finale against Mumbai

Mumbai were bundled out for 181 in their second innings on Day 3 of the Ranji Trophy Elite Division match

Mumbai: Jammu & Kashmir’s swing bowler Auqib Nabi continued to make waves in domestic cricket by picking up a five-wicket haul to bundle out Mumbai for just 181 runs in their second innings on the third day of the Ranji Trophy Elite Division match being played at Srinagar.

Jammu & Kashmir’s Auqib Nabi took five wickets to bundle out Mumbai for just 181 in their second innings (PTI)

Nabi’s heroics set up the game for a thrilling finish as hosts J&K chasing 243 for victory were 21/1 at close of play on Friday.

Opener Shubham Khajuria was the only wicket to fall, trapped leg before by Mumbai pacer Tushar Deshpande.

After captain Paras Dogra helped J&K to a total of 325 with a fighting 144 to keep Mumbai’s first innings lead down to 61, Nabi brought the home team into the game by running through the top-order.

The star-studded Mumbai line-up were aware of Nabi’s threat having experienced his quality bowling the last time these two teams met in the Ranji Trophy at the start of the year. In the last game playing against Mumbai on their homeground, Nabi had picked up four wickets in the second innings to play a starring role in J&K’s stunning outright win.

The pace bowler had finished the 2024-25 Ranji trophy season as the highest wicket-taker among fast bowlers (44 wickets) and had started the current season with a bang by bagging a five-wicket haul for North Zone in the Duleep Trophy game against East Zone, which included four wickets in four balls.

Unlucky to miss out on a bigger haul in the first innings despite bowling impressively, Nabi cut through the Mumbai top-order with wickets of Musheer Khan and Ajinkya Rahane to reduce Mumbai to 22/3.

He added the wickets of Siddhesh Lad, Sarfaraz Khan and Akash Anand to finish with figures of 16-2-52-5. Three of his five victims were leg before.

It was an embarrassing day for Mumbai. In this game, the domestic giants were expected to avenge their shock defeat at home in the 2024-25 season at the hands of the so-called minnows.

However, reputations didn’t count for much on the day. Musheer Khan was out for eight, Ayush Mhatre fell for 13 (LBW Umar Nazir), veteran batter Ajinkya Rahane failed to open his account and first innings centurion Lad made 10 as Mumbai collapsed to 70/5. Shams Mulani with 41 was the top-scorer, Sarfaraz chipped in with a cameo of 32 and Anand made 31.

J&K will be banking on their experienced players Dogra and Abdul Samad to get to the target of 243.

Badoni claims five-for

Skipper Ayush Badoni’s career-best figures of 5/69 gave Delhi the advantage in their game against Hyderabad after the third day’s play.

Replying to Delhi’s mammoth first-innings score of 529/4 declared, Hyderabad were 400/7. Hyderabad still need 130 runs to take the first-innings lead. The home side’s star batter Tilak Varma was out for a duck to Badoni’s off-break. Badoni flighted one from round the wicket and the Asia Cup hero was trapped leg before wicket.

Saurashtra take first innings lead

In a thrilling day’s play, Saurashtra’s last-wicket pair of Yuvrajsinh Dodiya and Chetan Sakariya added 35 runs to help their team take the first innings lead against Karnataka. The two came together with 31 needed to take the lead and helped their team take the vital lead.

Brief scores:

In Hyderabad: Delhi 529/4 decl. Hyderabad 400/7 (Tanmay Agarwal 132, G Aniketreddy 87, Ayush Badoni 5/69).

In Srinagar: Mumbai 386 and 181 (Shams Mulani 41, Auqib Nabi 5/69). Jammu and Kashmir 325 (Paras Dogra 144, Shardul Thakur 3/57) and 21/1.

In Rajsamand: Chhattisgarh 332 & 64/4 (Manav Suthar 4/25). Rajasthan 386 (Deepak Hooda 130, Ravi Kiran 4/68).

In Puducherry: Himachal Pradesh 305 and 91/4 (Sagar Udeshi 3/34). Puducherry 183 (Jayant Yadav 42, Mayank Dagar 3/56, Aryaman Singh 3/45).

In Bengaluru: Vidarbha 463 (Aman Mokhade 183; Yash Rathod 71; Jonathan Rongsen 4/98). Nagaland 171 & 113 (Chetan Bist 55; Harsh Dubey 4/51).

In Kanpur: Andhra 470 (KS Bharat 142, Shaik Rashdee 136; Vipraj Nigam 4/136). Uttar Pradesh 294/6 (Aryan Juyal 66, Rinku Singh 82, Madhav Kaushik 54).

In Cuttack: Odisha 271 (Rajesh Dhuper 94; Atit Seth 4/67). Baroda 413/7 (Shivalik 124, Mitesh Patel 100, Sukirt Pandey 71; Sumit Sharma 3/104).

In Coimbatore: Jharkhand 419 (Ishan Kishan 173, Sahil Raj 77; Gurjapneet Singh 4/71). Tamil Nadu 93 (Jatin Pandey 5/35, Sahil Raj 4/21) & 52/3.