A moment from the final between NF Railway and Dibrugarh at NF Railway Stadium in Maligaon on Sunday. Picture by Eastern Projections

Guwahati, March 11: The four-day senior inter-district cricket final of the Nuruddin Ahmed Trophy was thrown wide open today as NF Railway continued to lead by 143 runs with only four wickets in hand despite getting a first-innings lead of 25 runs against a fighting Dibrugarh at NF Railway Stadium in Maligaon.

After restricting Dibrugarh to 199 in 60 overs, the NF Railway side was placed at 118 for six in 41 overs at the end of the day.

Out of favour Ranji players — Bachchan Singh (0) and Tilak Das (4) — were at the crease at the draw of stumps.

Pritam Debnath (42) and Dimbeswar Boro (32), who had failed to open their accounts in the first innings, got good starts but frittered it away. So did the promising Swarupam Purkayastha, who made 10.

The Dibrugarh bowling-trio of Prasanta Sonowal, Ankur Choudhury and Prasanta Mech did most of the damage. While Sonowal took two wickets for 34 runs, Choudhury, who had taken six wickets in the first innings, claimed one for 31. Another Dibrugarh bowler, Mech, claimed two for 15 runs.

Like NF Railway, Dibrugarh batsmen too, had frittered away after a good start earlier in the day.

Resuming at 60 for one, the team lost overnight batsman Ranjan Deka without any addition to his well-made 39. The other notable scorers were C. Das (40) and Mech (36). Das and Purkayastha of the railway were the wrecker-in-chiefs, claiming four for 41 and three for 52 respectively.

Railway coach Utpal Das admitted the game was wide open because batsmen from both the sides frittered away after good starts and an outright victory for any of the teams was almost certain without any intervention from the weather gods.

“We will like to take an overall lead of 250. We are banking on Bachan, Tilak and Mrigen to deliver. We are heading towards an exciting finish if the first innings is anything to go by,” Das said.

On the first day, Mrigen Talukdar (57), Deep Bora (46), Kamesh Rao (29) and Gyan Prakash (16) had helped hosts NF Railway put up 224 after they were struggling at 10 for four against some fine bowling from Choudhury, who finished with six for 54, and Sonowal who claimed two for 64.

Dibrugarh ended the first day at 60 for one with Deka batting on 39.