Auqib Nabi’s big litmus test was the opening act of the Ranji Trophy finals week. Beyond the weight of expectation bearing down on Karnataka and J&K, Nabi’s clash with a Karnataka top order collectively carrying close to 100 Test caps was the emboldened sub-plot for Indian cricket, desperate for more match-ready seamers. The highest wicket-taker of the season, with 56 scalps, his opposition included an active India opener and the leading run-scorer of the Ranji campaign. It took Nabi 22 balls to stupefy KL Rahul with a framing so brutal on the bat-pad-wicket trifecta that the stoic India opener managed only one scoring shot. The new-ball set-up, lasting four overs from the pavilion end, instantly showed the Karnataka bowlers what they ought to have done on the first morning under muggier conditions. The second spell of five from the other end aptly illustrated why the man from Baramulla has been touted as the most India-ready seamer in the domestic circuit since last season. Unlike Karnataka, who had held their India pacer Prasidh Krishna back and offered copious width for the J&K batters on the first morning, Nabi began operations 90 minutes into Day 3’s play — in warmer climes, after J&K’s project 650 was cut short to 584, Karnataka picking up the last four wickets for 57 runs. Within the next two hours, interrupted by a 40-minute lunch break, Karnataka’s edge on a flatbed home ground had dissipated rapidly. Nabi had accounted for two of the four Test bats and snipped R Smaran — the leading run-getter of the season — for nought. Three days earlier, on finals eve, Nabi had watched Karun Nair’s recurring troubles around off-stump as both camps shared adjacent nets with limited privacy during the final training session. Nair was beaten consistently, the ball either homing into his pad or clipping the erected off-stump. Set-up masterclass In the fourth over of his second spell, Nabi constricted Nair with a a delivery so precisely calibrated it could have been thrown down on a stick by a specialist— except Nair had no idea where it was going. The speeds were starkly dissimilar, but Nabi’s 135-kph seamers could still extract movement off a third-day surface that had lost little of its hardness. Playing down a middle-and-leg line, Nair’s wafted blade failed to account for the full, angled delivery that has earned Nabi the Dale Steyn comparison in Baramulla — and increasingly, beyond it. The precision was unmistakable when he nipped Smaran for a golden duck, denting the magnitude of his 950-run dream season by a considerable margin. Nabi lived up to the billing in piling unrelenting pressure on Rahul from the outset. Rahul was found negotiating six consecutive balls with the bat as Nabi opened with a maiden. He would have another straight six dot-ball sequence in the next over, the first of which squared Rahul up and drew loud protests from the emotionally charged home fans desperate to see their Mangaluru hero bat big. A chink was subtly exposed — Rahul’s right leg drifting across to the outswing. On the 10th delivery, he was evidently beaten outside off-stump, frantically retracting the blade to deny the image of being trapped. After 14 balls on tenterhooks, a confident drive fetched him three runs off a misfield at extra cover — his only scoring stroke off Nabi.Story continues below this ad Returning after lunch from the far end, Nabi planted the unplayable seed on length from his second delivery. In a one-two-three sequence, Rahul’s backlift moved squarer — towards second slip — in anticipation of width. Arms in studious sync through the follow-through, Nabi slid the ball in with a devious slant, the angle correcting its own course to flail Rahul once more. Squared up, Rahul tried to drag his hanging bat back over the off-stump — too late. The outside edge carried comfortably to keeper Kanhaiya Wadhwan, whose persistent review call overturned the on-field decision, UltraEdge confirming the spike. Nabi’s credentials had been steadily building into this run. His career-best match figures came in the quarter-finals: a 12-wicket demolition of Madhya Pradesh in Indore. In an evenly-poised semi-final in Bengal, his nine-wicket burst had even overshadowed India veteran Mohammed Shami’s career-best eight-wicket haul. With his new-ball partner Sunil Kumar accounting for Karnataka captain Devdutt Padikkal early, J&K had landed the collective first punch in their bid for an epochal title. Reduced to 57 for four, the hosts risk conceding a hefty first-innings lead that could prove fatal. Hailing from close to the Line of Control, Nabi’s infallible composure — that seam-swing combine — has lit up a final in north Karnataka. An India cap is shimmering. Nabi and the Karnataka top order could both feel it, up close, on a hot Thursday afternoon in Rajnagar.
Ranji Trophy Final: Auqib Nabi dismantles Karnataka’s Test top order to put Jammu & Kashmir on the brink of history
