Ranji Trophy: Unplayable Auqib Nabi likes to keep it 'simple'

Hubballi: For about three minutes during the 18th over of Karnataka innings, a deafening silence prevailed here at the KSCA Rajnagar Stadium as a relentless Auqib Nabi wheeled away in his customary celebration after picking Karun Nair and Smaran R in two successive deliveries. 

And for those three minutes, Karnataka looked clueless.

Having entered the Ranji Trophy final with 99 wickets in the last two seasons, Nabi was tagged as Jammu and Kashmir’s poster boy of seam bowling. And it did not take long for him to justify the hype. 

After picking KL Rahul with a peach, squaring him up, Nabi bowled two seeds -- one that hit the seam and moved away and the other that straightened after pitching -- to dismiss the hosts’ top-two highest run-getters this Ranji Trophy season. 

And the magic potion? Keeping things simple. 

“I just wanted to keep it simple. Just wanted to bowl in a particular spot and in good areas,” Nabi said after the end of the third day’s play. 

The Karnataka bowlers had toiled for 173.1 overs on a lifeless and slow track. However, to a certain extent, they had themselves to blame as they were a tad wider and shorter from the stumps. 

“I felt there was little help on the pitch but Karnataka were a little wayward with the ball,” he said. 

In Nabi’s case, he was much closer to the off stump, and with the odd ball staying low, made the batters play more often, consistently bowling in the corridor of uncertainty. 

Nabi’s cocked wrist came to the fore, which helps him to keep the seam upright and land it on the seam consistently, threatening the edges and the stumps.  

The 29-year-old explained the value of a strong and stable wrist behind the ball. 

“It's very important. If you have a straight wrist, everything else becomes easy for you. Because the ball moves only with the wrist. So if you have a cocked wrist, the rest will follow if you hit the right channel.”

Having run through Karnataka’s star-studded batting-order like a knife through butter, Nabi said the results will come irrespective of the batters’ name if one bowls in good areas.

“Yes, I was confident. No batter is difficult to bowl to if you keep bowling in good areas. I think about my bowling and not who I am bowling to,” he signed off.