Abid Mushtaq brought the poet in him out as he explained why he was successful on the second day of the Duleep Trophy match for North Zone against West Zone. "Main shaant chalta hoon, underground gufa banaata hoon. Effect baahar rehta hain, last-last pe hota hain" Roughly translated, the left-arm spinner from Jammu & Kashmir feels he did well because he stays calm and thinks deep, which may be why he references the underground gufa (cave). The one thing he couldn't fit into his philosophical lines was his execution.
The West Zone batters got neither a sighter nor any respite against Mushtaq.
They could pull off a Hail-Mary six like Tushar Deshpande did. Then again, two balls later, Mushtaq got Deshpande to complete a five-wicket haul for the cost of only 39 runs.
Considering he bowled nearly 26 overs, that is pretty cool.
Mushtaq, 29, put in a performance like the kind his idol Ravindra Jadeja is known for, bowling long spells and giving nothing away. It wasn't too surprising. Australia had signed Mushtaq as a net bowler during the 2023 Border-Gavaskar Trophy in India to mirror Jadeja's accuracy.
In Bengaluru, the Prithvi Shaw wicket was one for the memory bank - drifting in, pitching on leg, and spinning past the edge to flatten off. The Shivalik Sharma lbw showed his range and how all that deep thinking also includes a little bit of the unorthodox. Mushtaq went around the wicket to the left-hand batter. As often as it is seen in T20 cricket, this angle increases the chance of the ball pitching outside leg stump and eliminating the lbw. This particular ball pitched on off and straightened. Mushtaq kept finding ways to give himself the upper hand and secured a 64-run lead for North Zone, who had only made 251 in their first innings.
The one batter Mushtaq didn't dismiss but had on toast throughout was Musheer Khan, who tried his darnedest to stonewall his side to safety.
He made 31 off 126 balls. Musheer almost got nutmegged (over 23.3), beaten on the outside edge (23.4) and the inside edge (23.5), and got an inside edge that landed safely (25.6). He scored 11 runs off Mushtaq in 52 balls. He tried to get more, mainly by charging down, but Mushtaq was "dheeth" (stubborn); he wasn't going off his spot. "Whether I hit my yorker or not, [I'll keep at it], even if the batter tries to sweep. I believe it's hard for batters to sweep me at my speed."
Mushtaq rushes batters, another Jadeja trait.
In 2025, Mushtaq dropped a catch against Kerala that cost J&K a spot in what would have been their first Ranji Trophy semi-final. That match came down to a matter of a solitary run. Mushtaq made amends next time around, and went on to be part of J&K's maiden Ranji title earlier this year.
In Mushtaq's opinion, his confidence to deliver in tight situations has grown from the backing of his coaches, particularly P Krishna Kumar, who has been J&K's bowling coach, and from past performances. Mushtaq readily cites his ten-for that helped J&K successfully defend 87 against Puducherry in 2023-24, and the 8 for 18 to topple then defending champions Vidarbha. In fact, his best figures in first-class cricket show his habit of taking bags of wickets at shockingly low economy rates.
Mushtaq attributes some of the success to playing on red-soil pitches, like the two performances mentioned above. They aren't available in J&K. So he gets goosebumps, he says, any time he doesn't have to bowl on black-soil and green (matting) wickets, which is what is generally available back home.
All this belies the conditions at the start of the day. Heavy clouds above, and breeze for swing. Spin should have meant relief for batters. Instead, Mushtaq bowled 25.4 of the 65.4 overs North Zone bowled, and helped them secure a 64-run lead, one that is likely to grow into a target that would give him a much bigger cushion in the fourth innings. Mushtaq might not need it, though.