Jammu and Kashmir have done something very special. They have won the Ranji Trophy for the very first time. The Ranji Trophy is the biggest and most important domestic cricket tournament in India. Now, they have finally won the beautiful gold and silver trophy against a very strong Karnataka team in the final match.
The players from Jammu and Kashmir have written their names in the history books of Indian cricket. To understand how they won the final game, we have to look at how a multi-day cricket match is played. This match did not have a clear winner in the normal way. In a normal win, one team scores more runs and gets all the players of the other team out. In this final match, time ran out before that could happen. Because time ran out, the match ended in a draw.
However, in the Ranji Trophy tournament, there is a clear rule to find a winner when a final match ends in a draw. The judges look at the first part of the game. Every team gets to bat twice in these long games. In the first inning of batting, Jammu and Kashmir scored a lot more runs than Karnataka. In fact, they scored 291 more runs than their opponents.
This is called taking a very big first-innings lead. Because their lead was so big, the rules say they are the champions. This shows they played much better than the other team from the very start of the game and never let the other team get ahead.
Great Batting on the Last Day
On the last day of the match, the Jammu and Kashmir team was batting for their second turn. This is called the second innings. They wanted to make sure Karnataka had absolutely no chance to win or come back into the game. They did this job very well. They scored 342 runs and only lost 4 wickets all day.
Two players batted perfectly on this final day:
- Qamran Iqbal: He is an opening batsman, which means he is one of the first two players to go out and bat for his team. He scored 160 runs and did not get out at all. He played very safely, hit the ball very well, and stayed on the grass field until the very end.
- Sahil Lotra: He joined Qamran Iqbal on the field and also batted wonderfully. He scored 101 runs and also stayed not out until the end of the day. This was a very happy moment for Sahil Lotra because it was his first time ever scoring a century, or 100 runs, in this big tournament.
Together, these two players added many runs to their team’s score. The Karnataka bowlers tried very hard all day long, but they failed to get even one player out on the last day.
The Heroes of the Long Season
A team does not win a big tournament with only one or two good players. The whole team has to work together and play well in many games. Jammu and Kashmir played ten matches this season. They played good, smart cricket in all of them. Here are some of the players who helped them win over the past few months:
- Paras Dogra: He is the captain of the team and a great leader. He has played cricket for a very long time. During this season, he reached a very big goal. He crossed 10,000 runs in his total Ranji Trophy career. This means he has scored more than 10,000 runs over many years of playing in this tournament. This is a very rare and great thing to do.
- Yawer Hassan, Abdul Samad, and Kanhaiya Wadhawan: These batsmen also helped the team a lot. They played very well during the season. They all scored very useful half-centuries. A half-century is when a player scores 50 runs or more in one turn. These runs helped the team win matches when they were in hard spots.
The Fast Bowling Star
While the batsmen scored runs, the bowlers stopped the other teams from scoring. The best bowler for Jammu and Kashmir was a fast bowler named Auqib Nabi. He had a truly great season.
In the final match, he took five wickets in one part of the game. This is called a five-wicket haul. It is a great prize for a bowler. He did this not just once, but seven times during the whole season. He bowled fast and straight, and he made the batsmen make lots of mistakes. He was a very big reason why his team won the semi-final match and the final match. He took wickets exactly when his team really needed them.
Winning the Hard Semi-Final Match
Before they could play in the final, Jammu and Kashmir had to win a semi-final match. This match was against the team from Bengal. They played this match in a town called Kalyani.
This was a very hard match for them. In the first part of the game, Bengal scored more runs than Jammu and Kashmir. Things looked very bad, and the team felt a lot of stress. But then, Auqib Nabi came to bowl. He bowled so well that the whole Bengal team got out for only 88 runs in their second turn.
After that great bowling, a batsman named Shubham Pundir played a beautiful game. He scored a century, which is 100 runs. Because of his great batting, the team scored a huge total of 584 runs. They won the match and felt very strong and happy. This big win gave them a lot of confidence to help them prepare for the final match.
Beating a Very Strong Karnataka Team
The final match was against Karnataka. Karnataka is a very famous team in Indian cricket. They have won the Ranji Trophy many times before. Everyone thought they were the favorites to win again this year. They had famous players and a lot of experience playing in big final matches.
One of their players, Mayank Agarwal, batted very well in the final match. He scored 160 runs for his team. But even his great batting could not save Karnataka.
Jammu and Kashmir played a very smart game. They did not worry about the famous names on the other team. They just focused on bowling the ball in the right places and hitting the bad balls for runs. They kept the pressure on Karnataka all the time. Karnataka was never in control of the game. Jammu and Kashmir showed that teamwork and smart thinking can beat a very famous team.
A Long Wait of 67 Years
This win is very special because of how long the team had to wait for it. The Jammu and Kashmir cricket team played their very first match in this tournament 67 years ago. For many years, they played, but they never reached the final match.
They came close a few times in the past. They reached the quarter-finals, which is the round just before the semi-finals. They did this in the years 2013-14, 2019-20, and 2024-25. But in those matches, they could not handle the stress of the big games and they lost.
This year, the players changed their thinking. They were very calm. They were full of confidence. They did not let the stress bother them at all. They were completely ready to win. They played step by step and never lost their focus.
The long cricket season finally came to an end on Saturday afternoon. It was exactly 2:10 pm. The match was over. The captains of both teams met in a small, simple dressing room inside the stadium. They shook hands to officially show that the game was finished.
As soon as they shook hands, the players from Jammu and Kashmir started to celebrate. They were full of joy and smiled warmly. Their helpers and coaches were also very happy. They had waited for many, many years to see this day happen. All their hard work and patience had finally given them the biggest prize in their sport. The Jammu and Kashmir team are now the champions.
The post Jammu and Kashmir Wins Their First Ever Ranji Trophy Title appeared first on Sportzcraazy.
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