J&K Storm Into Maiden Ranji Final, Stun Bengal

· Free Press Journal

Mumbai: There are fairytales in sport that are stirring and inspiring all at once and Jammu and Kashmir’s march into the 2026 Ranji Trophy final, their first-ever in 67 years of playing history, after stunning Bengal by six wickets in Kalyani puts them on the cusp of something truly special.

Bengal are two-time Ranji Trophy champions and beating them on their home turf is no mean task but J&K put up an inspired show led by the efforts of their bowlers especially who bowled out Bengal for a paltry 99 in their second innings that turned the match on its head.

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Pacers Auqib Nabi and Sunil Kumar will take credit for their four-wicket hauls in the second innings that had Bengal on the mat and set J&K a target of 126, which they eventually overhauled thanks to the batting efforts of Vanshaj Sharma and Abdul Samad who remained unbeaten on 43 and 30 respectively.

To put things in perspective and comprehend the enormity of what J&K have achieved this season, they had played 334 Ranji Trophy matches before the 2025-2026 season and won only 45 of those in the country’s biggest and most competitive First-Class tournament.

Since their maiden Ranji Trophy appearance in 1959, Jammu and Kashmir had a long journey of 44 years before they could win their first match in the competition in the 1982-83 season against Services.

The second major breakthrough came in 2013-2014 season when they beat Goa to storm into the Ranji Trophy quarterfinals on Net Run Rate and the big win that got all the eyeballs was their victory against powerhouses Mumbai at the iconic Wankhede Stadium in 2015-2016 when star performer Parvez Rasool was at the helm of affairs.

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They reached the semifinals for the first time in the 2015-16 season after key wins over Delhi and Hyderabad to enter the knockout stages and it took a dramatic victory by 56 runs against Madhya Pradesh to seal their place in the last four stage of that season.

To put a Bengal team to sword that had in their ranks India internationals Mohammad Shami, Mukesh Kumar, Akash Deep and Shahbaz Ahmed speaks volumes about the resilience, grit and gumption this J&K side possess and it’s going to hold them in good stead heading into the summit clash against Karnataka scheduled from February 24th-28th.

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