Jammu & Kashmir 584 and 186 for 4 (Qamran 94*, Samad 32, Prasidh 2-42) lead Karnataka 293 (Mayank 160, Kruthik 36, Nabi 5-54, Sunil 2-51) by 477 runs

There was spice, there were war of words, there was another Auqib Nabi five-wicket haul, and at the end of it all, Jammu & Kashmir had one hand on a maiden Ranji Trophy title at the end of day four of the final in Hubbali.

Trailing by a mammoth 364 runs, Karnataka required someone to hang around with centurion Mayank Agarwal. Kruthik Krishna managed to do that for a while, adding 79 runs for the sixth wicket off 175 balls. But one contentious lbw decision, and it all unravelled for the hosts. Kruthik fell for 36, and with the second new ball, the awesome Auqib ran amok, picking up 5 for 54 to bowl Karnataka out for 293 and secure a mammoth 291-run lead.

The Karnataka bowlers, searching for a miracle, reduced J&K to 11 for 2 after they opted to bat again instead of enforcing the follow-on. But Qamran Iqbal, who has an unorthodox technique, scored an unbeaten 94 to all but seal Karnataka's fate. At stumps on day four, J&K had stretched their lead to 477 runs with six wickets intact.

J&K started day four with the two fast bowlers Nabi and Yudhvir Singh in tandem, but with the new ball due soon, the two gave way to the spinners. And that's when Sahil Lotra struck a decisive blow, one that quickly became a topic of discussion.

Bowling from around the wicket, the offspinner got the ball to land on off and come in with the angle, rapping Kruthik on the front pad. The on-field umpire had his finger up, with Kruthik reviewing immediately. His bat and pad were close together, and it wasn't clear whether the ball hit his pad first or the bat. After multiple replays, the third umpire had no evidence to overturn the on-field decision, and off went a perplexed Kruthik.

Vidhyadhar Patil walked in next, and by this time, the new ball was available. Then left-arm quick Sunil Kumar didn't take much time to strike. From around the wicket, Sunil went wide of the crease and angled the ball into Patil, who was forced to play the line and ended up managing a thin edge to the wicketkeeper.

With regular wicketkeeper Kanhaiya Wadhawan off the field, Agarwal got a reprieve when he edged Nabi to the right of the stand-in wicketeeper Dikshant Kundal, who failed to hang on. The resultant four brought up Mayank's 150, but soon enough, Nabi was back among the wickets. He got the ball to nip away from Agarwal around off stump, and with the batter on the move, he missed and got hit on the pad.

While the on-field umpire did not give that out, the decision was overturned via DRS as Agarwal walked back for a sensational 160. Vyshak then played a few agricultural shots, but Nabi struck for the fifth time when he had Shikhar Shetty caught in front, a decision requiring the intervention of the third umpire again. It was Nabi's seventh five-wicket haul this season, and in the process, he also became the highest wicket-taker of the 2025-26 Ranji Trophy with 60 strikes to his name.

Prasidh slammed Yudhvir down the track but was dismissed for 4, caught at mid-on, as Karnataka were bowled out for 293.

Any chance of a Karnataka comeback depended on early wickets. And Prasidh gave them hope by striking with his first ball, cleaning up opener Yawer Hassan via an inside edge onto the stumps. Then, on the last ball before lunch, Vyshak had first-innings centurion Shubham Pundir strangled down leg. With J&K at 11 for 2, and ahead by a big but not out of reach 302 runs, Karnataka would have harboured hopes of a miracle.

But captain Paras Dogra and the unconventional Qamran quickly quashed Karnataka's hopes. The two put up a dogged 61-run stand after lunch, negating everything that Karnataka threw at them. Qamran rode his luck when Patil's outswinger hit the top of off stump fairly hard, but the bails did not dislodge. Flown in for this game after Shubham Khajuria was ruled out on match eve, Qamran wasn't always covering the line of the ball. He often went leg side, cleared his left leg, and depended on his hand-eye coordination to score runs. The technique worked.

Qamran struck 11 fours and a six to remain unbeaten on 94, and will eye a century on the final day. Dogra, though, was bowled by Prasidh, but Abdul Samad joined forces with Qamran to propel J&K. Samad and Qamran added 73 runs for the fourth wicket, ensuring the visitors lost just one wicket in the second session. With the two spinners, Shreyas Gopal and Shikhar Shetty, adopting a negative line down leg, Samad and Qamran bided their time before Samad's patience ran out and he spooned a leading edge to mid-off.

By then, the lead was nearing 450, and Vyshak was introduced into the attack for some short-ball tactics. What followed was a fiery spell of fast bowling and run-ins with Qamran on multiple occasions, which needed the intervention of the two on-field umpires. Qamran won the battle in the end, with J&K ending day four on 186 for 4, with a mammoth lead. Qamran and Lotra were undefeated as history beckoned for J&K.