MUMBAI, Aug. 30 -- J&K's Auqib Nabi was the standout pacer of the 2024-25 Ranji Trophy season, finishing as the second-highest wicket-taker with 44 wickets in eight games, behind spinner Harsh Dubey. It was one of the reasons why, in India's domestic cricket circles, he has established a fairly good reputation among opponents. However, to progress, you need to back the Ranji Trophy exploits at the next level. In the season opener, Nabi has gone ahead and done just that. Friday's performance in the Duleep Trophy game for North against East, will give Nabi a lot of satisfaction because sharing the stage with international pacers, including Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh and Harshit Rana, he showed the skills to best exploit the conditions at BCCI's Centre of Excellence, Bengaluru. In a sensational performance, the bowler from Baramullah claimed four wickets in four balls to claim a fifer and run through the East's lower-order, triggering a collapse from 222/5 to 230 all out. Earlier, while batting, he had smashed 44 off 33 balls at No 9 to help North's total reach 405. Making brilliant use of the old ball, Nabi started East's slide with the wicket of the well-set Virat Singh for 69 runs, clean bowling him with a vicious in-coming delivery in the 53rd over. It was the fourth ball of his over, in his third spell. With his last two balls of the over, he trapped Manishi with a length ball and castled Mukhtar Hussain with an in-dipper to complete his hat-trick. With the first ball of his next over, Nabi had Suraj Sindhu Jaiswal caught behind. Nabi finished off the innings with the wicket of Mohammed Shami to return impressive figures of 10.1-1-28-5 and help North gain a 175-run first-innings lead. With all the national selectors in attendance, the impressive performance should help Nabi become a contender for the higher grade of cricket as the Indian team's think-tank is keen to increase its pace bowlers talent pool....