In the ongoing Duleep Trophy, Jammu and Kashmir pacer Auqib Nabi scripted history against East Zone.
In the Duleep Trophy match against East Zone, Nabi, who is representing North Zone, claimed four wickets in four balls. With this, he became the first player to achieve this rare feat in the tournament’s history.
With his bowling prowess, he has set new standards in India’s domestic circuit. He rattled through the East Zone’s batting line-up with his sheer pace at the BCCI Centre of Excellence Ground.
He achieved the feat on the last three deliveries of the 53rd over, by dismissing Virat Singh, Mainishi, and Mukhtar Hussain. On the very first ball of the next over, he dismissed Suraj Sindhu Jaiswal.
At stumps, he returned with figures of five wickets for 28 runs in 10.1 overs. East Zone were bowled out for 230 runs in 56.1 overs in response to a daunting 405 runs.
Nabi is also the third player to register a hat-trick in the tournament. The other two players to achieve a hat-trick in the Duleep Trophy are Kapil Dev in the 1979 edition, and leg-spinner Sairaj Bahutule in 2001.
Nabi made his debut for Jammu and Kashmir in 2020 and eventually burst onto the scene with a three-wicket haul against Karnataka in the quarter-final. He went wicketless in the second innings but remained the most economical bowler for his side.
In that season, Nabi brought the curtains down on his campaign with a staggering 24 wickets in just seven games, at an average of 18.50, with two five-wicket hauls.
Over the next two years, he did not make a single appearance for his state side in first-class cricket. It appeared as if his red-ball career had stalled, but a single season turned his career around.
In the last season of the Ranji Trophy, Nabi left opposition batters in dismay and blazed his way to 49 wickets from nine matches at a stellar average of 13.08.
Nabi’s exploits handed a valuable 175-run lead to North Zone, who will now look to extend it on Day 3 and book their place in the semi-finals.
(With ANI Inputs)
