J&K’s Abid weaves magic to disarm Pondicherry in Ranji Trophy clash

With 87 to win in two days and a session, anyone would have thought Pondicherry was all set to wrap up the match. Even the Pondicherry captain, Rohit Damodaran, obviously thought so.

PoTM Abid Mushtaq (L) and Vanshaj Sharma (R) claimed ten wickets each to help Jammu & Kashmir beat Pondicherry by 19 runs.  | Photo Credit: S. Prasanna Venkatesan/The Hindu

It would have been Deja Vu for Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), watching left-arm spinner Abid Mushtaq run through the Pondicherry batting line-up, determined to secure a seemingly improbable win for his team.

With 87 to win in two days and a session, anyone would have thought Pondicherry was all set to wrap up the match. Even the Pondicherry captain, Rohit Damodaran, obviously thought so.

But Abid didn’t think so. “When I went onto the ground, I told my bowling coach, This score is a far cry for them. Because, the ball was turning sharply. That’s why, I told him, Don’t worry, I will show you (what I mean),” he said after his team’s 19-run win over Pondicherry on the third day of the sixth-round match in Elite Group-D of the Ranji Trophy at the Cricket Association of Pondicherry (CAP) Siechem ground on Sunday.

After the third session on the second day, Rohit looked bewildered, explaining to a support staff that the incoming deliveries off the left-arm spinners had been hard to face.

Abid concurs that the arm-ball has been his major weapon on turners. “When I hold the ball tight, the ball goes straight. That is difficult to play on turning tracks. I work on the arm-ball for almost 15-20 minutes in every practice session,” he said.

In the third session on the second day, when Pondicherry began its chase and was reduced to 35 for seven, Abid claimed five for 17 to complete his second ten-wicket match haul to cause a turnaround for his team and get it pumped up with belief. After all, J&K had been bowled out for 106 within the first session on the first day, Pondicherry had managed a 66-run first-innings lead, and J&K was again bowled out for 152 for the home team to get only 87 to win. The odds were dead set against J&K.

Incidentally, Abid’s first ten-wicket match haul had also come in a similar situation. And he had similarly helped his team achieve a seemingly improbable win.

When Vidarbha was to get 141 to win in around one-and-a-half days in the third round of the 2022-23 Ranji Trophy season, Abid picked up eight for 18 for it be be bowled out for 101. He took six wickets in three overs - one, two, and three in each over!