Devraj Patil and Raju Bhatkal would have been cursing themselves for the kind of shots they played — leading to their downfall — after having entrenched themselves for a bigger knock, 
Having said that the two, who scored a half-century each, should be given most of the credit for the position KSCA President’s XI are in after the hosts had been reduced to a precarious 34 for four and then 46 for five on the opening day of the two-day match against Air India in the KSCA all-India invitation tournament at the NRA ground on Wednesday.
At close of an extended day, President’s XI were in a much better- looking 199 for nine from 82 overs with Ryan Ninan still going strong on 31 (92b, 3x4, 1x6).
The match started an hour and 15 minutes behind the schedule due to damp conditions caused by heavy overnight rain but Karnataka batsmen seemed to be in a lot of hurry losing their first three wickets in exchange of just 14 runs before the lunch session.
Medium pacer Moondeep Mangela did the early damage removing opener C M Gautham and one-drop Ganesh Satish while Praveen Kumar saw the back of another opener C B Karthik.
On resumption after lunch, Gujarat medium pacer Siddarth Trivedi, who tasted no success in the truncated first session, straightaway got rid of Rajashekar Shanbal and Amit Verma as President’s XI lost half their side with almost nothing on the board.
The absence of a proper sightscreen from the end Trivedi bowled after lunch too contributed to his success. The batsmen, playing under fading light, often lost sight of the ball when the tall pacer’s deliveries merged with the swaying trees in the background.
Patil, leading the side in the absence of an injured Sudhindra Shinde, and Bhatkal should consider themselves a tad lucky when Trivedi walked out with a toe nail troubling him. By the time the bowler returned, both the batsmen had built a comfort zone around themselves. That, however, is not to take anything away from the duo’s effort in extricating the side from the deep hole they were in.
The two right-handers, fresh from their tour of Australia, put their head down and played sensibly as the situation warranted. Patil in particular looked impressive in the way he negated the pace trio of Trivedi, Praveen and Mangela. The lanky batsman, though cautious, didn’t hesitate to chance his arm whenever the opportinuty presented itself. Watching Patil bat, a tentative Bhatkal too improved in confidence.
The sixth-wicket yielded 75 valuable runs and just when it seemed the home side was slowly beginning to regain lost ground, Patil (68, 111b, 9x4), flashing at a widish delivery from off-spinner Pritham Gandhe, ended up offering a simple catch to Ankit Chavan at point.
Bhatkal (63, 111b, 5x4, 2x6) too got dismissed playing an audacious drive towards long-on, but not before the allrounder had realised 24 runs for the sixth wicket with Abrar Kazi and 30 runs for the seventh with Ninan.
Kerala, TN win
In the other matches, Kerala Cricket Association defeated Indian Oil Corporation by five wickets while Tamil Nadu Cricket Association XI trounced Indian Airlines by nine wickets.
Brief scores:
At NRA:  KSCA President's XI: 199/9 in 82 overs (Devraj Patil 68, Raju Bhatkal 63, Ryan Ninan 31 batting; Siddarth Trivedi 2-31, Pritham Gandhe 3-64) vs Air India.
At Chinnaswamy Stadium: Indian Oil Corporation: 121 all out in 32.5 overs (Abhishek Raut 47; Sony Cheruvathur 5-43, Raiphi Vincent Gomez 5-29) lt to Kerala Cricket Association: 125/5 in 20.5 overs (Raiphi Vincent Gomez 45, P Prashanth 27 n.o.; Rohan Raju 3-32).
At IAF:  Baroda Cricket Association: 166 all out in 57 overs (Shatrunjay Gaekwad 36, Vishwanatha Parmar 35; A Avinash 4-53, R Suresh 2-26) vs Chemplast: 19/1 in 7 overs.
At RSI: Indian Airlines: 92 all out in 31.2 overs (Ishan Gandha 31 n.o.; Tamil Kumaran 5-30, R Ashwin 2-14, R Naresh 2-9) lt to Tamil Nadu Cricket Association XI: 94/1 in 17.2 overs (S Anirudha 36, M Vijay 44 n.o.).