\n<\/p>\n
Jammu and Kashmir’s maiden triumph in India’s premier domestic championship last week is more than a sporting milestone – it is one of the most stirring stories in the country’s cricket.<\/b><\/p>\n
The Ranji Trophy, one of the oldest first-class competitions in the sport, sits at the heart of the game in the world’s most powerful cricketing nation. <\/p>\n
To win it is to claim a place in the country’s cricketing mainstream; for Jammu and Kashmir, it marks a breakthrough that was decades in the making.<\/p>\n
Cricket in the disputed region dates back to the colonial era, when the Kashmir willow – prized for its strength and resilience – helped craft bats that powered the sport across India. <\/p>\n
For decades, the region was scarred by insurgency, political turmoil and a deep sense of alienation – tensions that culminated in 2019 when Delhi revoked Jammu and Kashmir’s autonomy and split the state into two new federally-administered territories.<\/p>\n
Yet, even through these upheavals, passion for cricket ran deep. Success, however, proved elusive.<\/p>\n
That changed over a remarkable fortnight. <\/p>\n
In a season overshadowed by the ongoing high-voltage T20 World Cup, where India are defending champions, it was this unfancied northern side that quietly commanded attention. <\/p>\n
After defeating seven-time champions Delhi to enter the knockouts, Jammu and Kashmir gathered momentum.<\/p>\n
Former champions Madhya Pradesh fell in the quarter-finals. Bengal were subdued in the semi-finals. In the final, stood eight-time winners Karnataka, boasting four current internationals – KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Karun Nair and Prasidh Krishna – and overwhelming experience.<\/p>\n
Jammu and Kashmir were the underdogs and most expected them to falter. Instead, they produced cricket of composure, skill and steel, outplaying their decorated opponents to claim India’s premier first-class title.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Jammu and Kashmir’s maiden triumph in India’s premier domestic championship last week is more than a sporting milestone – it is one of the most stirring stories in the country’s cricket. The Ranji Trophy, one of the oldest first-class competitions in the sport, sits at the heart of the game in the world’s most powerful<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9614,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cricket"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9613"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9613\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}