A by-the-book pacer Auqib Nabi and an unorthodox opener Qamran Iqbal blended their skills to place Jammu and Kashmir in a prime position to lift their maiden Ranji Trophy title against Karnataka on the penultimate day of the five-day final here on Friday. Iqbal (94 not out) struck his seventh first-class fifty as Jammu and Kashmir reached 186 for four at stumps in their second innings, for an overall lead of 477 runs. In the earlier part of the day, Nabi took his seventh five-wicket haul (5/54) of the season as J&K bowled out Karnataka for 293, grabbing an innings lead of 291 runs. Karnataka's first innings revolved around a valiant 160 off 266 balls by former skipper Mayank Agarwal but in the context of the match the knock remained a rather insignificant one. Nabi was the primary reason behind confining Agarwal's fine hundred to the shades. The J&K pacer was in his elements once Karnataka resumed from overnight 220 for five.

Overhauling J&K's 584 was out of bounds, but Karnataka's realistic hope was to whittle down the deficit as much as possible and then try to chase a reasonable target in the fourth innings. Agarwal and Kruthik Krishna (36), seemed to be on course while adding over 80 runs for the sixth wicket. But J&K's saviour returned when the second new ball was taken. But before Nabi could deal the biggest blow, Sahil Lotra removed Kruthik, trapping the wicketkeeper batter leg before even though the ball might have made a slight contact with the bat. Left-arm pacer Sunil Kumar ousted Vidyadhar Patil as J&K maintained their upper hand. But Nabi snuffed out any last vestiges of hope Karnataka entertained, pinging Agarwal's pads and the DRS confirmed the hosts' worst fears.