New Delhi: North Zone and East Zone faced each other in the quarter-finals of the Duleep Trophy 2025-26 but the headlines were not from Punjabs Arshdeep Singh or Harshit Rana but from Jammu and Kashmirs fast bowler Aaqib Nabi. He caught everyones attention with his brilliant performance. Four wickets in four balls The real turning point of the match came when Nabi took four wickets in four consecutive balls in the 53rd over. After blowing Virat Singhs stumps he sent the rest of the batsmen to the pavilion one by one. With this historic achievement he became only the fifth Indian bowler to take four wickets in four balls in first-class cricket. Contribution with both ball and bat Nabis performance was not limited to bowling only. On the first day he also scored 44 runs in 33 balls which included four fours and two sixes. His innings took North Zone to 405 runs. He also showed the confidence gained in batting in bowling. Journey from Ranji to Duleep Trophy Nabi took 44 wickets in the 2024-25 Ranji season and led Jammu and Kashmir to the knockouts after five years. He took six wickets against a strong team like Mumbai and also dismissed international batsmen like Yashasvi Jaiswal Shreyas Iyer and Shivam Dube. This performance brought him to the Duleep Trophy. From a small town to big dreams Nabi who comes from Baramulla in Kashmir has a father who is a teacher in a government school. Despite the lack of facilities Nabis dream has always been to play for India. He says - If your goal is to play for India then resources do not matter hard work matters. Story Highlights Aaqib Nabi took 5 wickets against East Zone in which 4 wickets came in 4 balls. He also showed his strength with the bat scoring 44 runs in 33 balls. In Ranji he dismissed stars like Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shreyas Iyer against Mumbai. The dream of coming from Jammu and Kashmir and playing for India turned the struggles into strength.