Aaqib Nabi took 7 wickets in the second innings. (File photo)Image Credit source: PTI
Auqib Nabi Bowling: The new season of Ranji Trophy has just started and many players have attracted attention with their strong performances. While most of the discussion is revolving around the well-known players like Prithvi Shaw, Ajinkya Rahane, Mohammed Shami, Rajat Patidar, there are some players who are not getting the limelight as per their performance but are helping their team succeed. Jammu and Kashmir fast bowler Aaqib Nabi is one of those who has made a strong start to the new season. In the match against Rajasthan, Aaqib led his team to an easy victory by taking 10 wickets.
In this match of Ranji Trophy Elite Group D played in Srinagar, the magic of speed and swing of 'local boy' Aaqib was shown that despite scoring only 282 runs, Jammu and Kashmir won the match by an innings and 43 runs. Rajasthan batsmen had no answer to JK bowlers including Aaqib in this match. Especially in the second innings, Aaqib Nabi single-handedly broke the back of the Rajasthani team.
Rajasthan had scored only 152 runs in the first innings of this match. During this, Aaqib took 3 wickets and Sunil Kumar took 4 wickets. In reply, Jammu and Kashmir scored 282 runs in its first innings. Here also this fast bowler contributed and played an excellent inning of 55 runs at number 9. Apart from him, IPL star Abdul Samad scored 76 runs and Aaqib's bowling partner Yudhvir Singh Charak scored 53 runs. Jammu and Kashmir got a significant lead of 130 runs, which was enough to win.
Monday 27th October was the third day of the match and the match did not progress further from here. The reason for this was 28 year old pacer Aaqib. He gave the best performance of his first class career, taking 7 wickets for just 24 runs in 11 overs and giving the team a memorable victory by bowling out Rajasthan for just 89 runs. In this way, Aaqib took 10 wickets in the match and also contributed 55 runs. So far this season, Aaqib has taken 5 wickets in an innings in both the matches. Earlier, he had taken 5 wickets in the second innings against Mumbai also. And before that, in the Duleep Trophy match, he had taken 5 wickets in an innings.
