Hubli, February 27 – Opener Qamran Iqbal shone as Jammu & Kashmir recovered from early setbacks to reach tea on the fourth day of the Ranji Trophy final against eight-time champions Karnataka at the Hubli Cricket Ground on Friday.
Resuming at 11/2 after lunch, J&K opted for a cautious approach, aiming to further increase their first innings lead of 291 runs. Karnataka's pacers Prasidh Krishna and Vijay Kumar Vyshak bowled well, putting pressure on the batsmen with good length and accurate fielding.
Dogra and Qamran handled the pressure effectively, preventing Karnataka from capitalizing on their early momentum. They rotated the strike and took quick singles to put pressure on the opposition.
The duo forged a 61-run partnership before Krishna dismissed Dogra with a well-directed ball, prompting loud cheers from the home crowd. Dogra scored 16 runs off 59 balls.
After the loss of their captain, Qamran continued to steer the innings, supported by in-form batter Abdul Samad, who started his innings with a four off the third ball he faced.
Qamran is just seven runs away from his half-century, while Samad is unbeaten on 8 runs at the end of the second session. J&K has now extended their lead to 380 runs against Karnataka.
Earlier, Karnataka had made a strong start with the ball in the second innings, taking two early wickets, leaving Jammu & Kashmir at 11/2 at lunch.
Brief Scores: Jammu & Kashmir 584 all out & 89/3 (Shubham Pundir 121, Yawer Hassan 88, Sahil Lotra 72, Kanhaiya Wadhawan 70, Paras Dogra 70; Prasidh Krishna 5-98) lead Karnataka 293 all out in 93.3 overs (Mayank Agarwal 160, Kruthik Krishna 36; Auqib Nabi Dar 5-54, Sushil Kumar 2-51, Yudhwir Singh Charak 2-55) by 380 runs at tea on Day 4.
