Jammu & Kashmir beat Bengal to reach historic first-ever Ranji final

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Jammu & Kashmir wrapped up their historic victory in the Ranji Trophy semifinal against Bengal on the fourth morning, to reach their first-ever summit clash of the domestic tournament. J&K began the day on 43/2, needing just 83 more to secure the phenomenal win that was built on the efforts of pace duo Auqib Nabi Dar and Sunil Kumar who bagged match hauls of nine wickets and seven wickets respectively. Their second-innings effort pushed J&K towards the unprecedented moment, and their batters completed the job on Day 4.

J&K lost overnight batter Shubham Pundir and captain Paras Dogra but Vanshaj Sharma got together with Abdul Samad to hasten the chase. Samad finished unbeaten on 30 off 27, with one four and three sixes while Vanshaj got to 43* to see the chase through.

@B1$ Bengal 328 & 99 (Shahbaz Ahmed 24, Sunil Kumar 4-27, Auqib Nabi Dar 4-36) lost to Jammu and Kashmir 302 & 126/4 (Vanshaj Sharma 43*, Abdul Samad 30*; Akash Deep 3-46) by 6 wickets.

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Smaran Ravichandran scored his second century of the fixture as Karnataka continued to bury Uttarakhand under a mountain of runs. The fourth day began with Uttarakhand on 149/5 in response to Karnataka's mammoth first-innings total of 736. Vijaykumar Vyshak made quick inroads to reduce them to 162/7, picking wickets of Saurabh Rawat and Lakshya Raichandani - the latter cleaned up for 55. No.10 batter Aditya Rawat threw his bat around for an unbeaten 45 off 38 that included nine fours to drag his team past 200. But Vidyadhar Patil and Vyshak finished with three wickets each to bundle them out for 233.

Karnataka's only concern in this dominating performance was that their captain Devdutt Padikkal suffered a hand injury and went off the field, and did not bat in the top-order. Kruthik Krishna was bumped up to open the innings and responded with a half-century. Shreyas Gopal and Karun Nair fell cheaply, before Smaran joined forces with KL ahul for the alliance. Towards the end of the day, Jagadeesha Suchith dismissed the centurion and Mayank Mishra removed Patil. Karnataka ended Day 4 on 299/6, with Rahul batting on 70 and a lead of 802 runs.

@B3$Karnataka 736 & 299/6 (Smaran Ravichandran 127, KL Rahul 70*, Kruthik Krishna 52, Abhay Negi 2-53, Mayank Mishra 2-57) lead Uttarakhand 233 (Lakshya Raichandani 52*, Vidyadhar Patil 3-40, Vijaykumar Vyshak 3-45) by 802 runs.