New Delhi, Feb. 27 -- Before the final, Auqib Nabi couldn't sleep like he usually did. He kept thinking about history being on the line, going to the ground and celebrating. And he may have brought Jammu & Kashmir close to that dream. It was a nearly flat track in Hubballi. The kind where batters settle down and cash in. Karnataka's batting order, on paper, looks like it could eat any attack alive. Yet even before the team travelled, J&K bowling coach P Krishna Kumar had made a quiet, assured prediction. "We are confident that we will take 20 wickets," he told HT. It was not bluster or self-hype. It was belief in his bowling attack and most of all, in its spearhead Nabi. From the moment he ran in on the third day, there was a shift in tempo. On a pitch where the opposition quicks had struggled to create chances, Nabi's start immediately stood out. And at Stumps on Day 3 with Karnataka at 220/5, he had picked up 3/32. The Baramulla pacer has dominated the discourse around J&K this season by leading the wicket-taker tally but if there were still any doubts about his ability, his giant-killing spell that gobbled up Karnataka's star-studded line-up will compel selectors to look at him more seriously, if they aren't already. Krishna Kumar has long argued that assumptions around pace have worked against his spearhead, even amongst selectors. "People just assume that because he bowls at 129-135kmph, he cannot take wickets," he told HT before the match. "But we have played on flat wickets also. He has taken five wickets there also." He started with back-to-back maiden overs to KL Rahul, who will soon be his teammate at Delhi Capitals. Not defensive, persistently bowling in the corridor of uncertainty, not probing without purpose but attacking the stumps and, more importantly, forcing him to play at every delivery. If the spell to Rahul set the tone, the delivery to Karun Nair was momentous. On a surface offering little assistance, Nabi produced an almost unplayable beauty from over the wicket, angling it in. After pitching, it straightened and seamed away just enough and Nair played it down its original line, but the ball swished past the outside edge and shattered the off-stump. Just moments later, he rocked Karnataka once again. R Smaran, the highest run-scorer of the season, was sent back for a golden duck. It was a back of a length delivery in the off-stump channel from round the wicket that Smaran edged. The other doubt about Nabi was that he is bowling on green-tops. Krishna Kumar points out that in the semi-final, on a track where Bengal had piled up 325 runs in the first innings, Nabi picked up 5/87. In the second innings, J&K bowled them out for 99 and Nabi picked up a crucial 4/36. "On the third day, after two days of mowing and rolling, we bowled them out in 23 overs. Nabi picked up four," he said. "That means the bowler has ability." Brief scores: J&K 584 (Shubham Pundir 121, Yawer Hassan 88, Sahil Lotra 72, Paras Dogra 70, Kanhaiya Wadhawan 70; Prasidh Krishna 5/98). Karnataka 220/5 (Mayank Agarwal 130 batting; Auqib Nabi 3/32)....