India needs huge win against Bermuda to keep hopes alive

Port of Spain , Mar 18 (UNI) A desperate India needs a huge win against Bermuda in their second group B league match here tomorrow to keep their hopes alive for a berth in the super eight satge of the World Cup.

India's predicament is self created. They lost the match against Bangaldesh, which they should have won and now are left with no option but to go in for the big kill in their next two games.

The defeat against Bangladesh was a terrible setback, and the Indians will have to recover from it fast. In a sense, their task is now cut out. They will have to win big against the Bermudans, and then beat Sri Lanka in their final league game next Friday.

Otherwise, they will be on an early flight home, like Pakistan, who crashed to a humiliating defeat in what is one of the biggest upsets in the 32-year-old World Cup history at Kingston yesterday.

It may sound ironic but in a given situation, Dravid could not have asked for a better match next up. The team morale will be in the boots after yesterday, and if this side has the character so many of us think it has, that must start to reassert itself. The Bermudans are game triers, but even their most diehard supporter will admit they are far out of their league at this World Cup.

This is what India must capitalise on. Net run rate will be the most likely determinant of which two teams will progress from here to the Super Eights. And to boost their current run rate of -0.14, they will either need to bowl Bermuda out cheaply and knock off the runs in the fewest overs possible, or like Sri Lanka did on Thursday, pile up a massive score and then knock the Bermudans over for as little as possible.

The Indians will have to fire on all cylinders. They will have to click as a unit. Dravid's leadership was under the scanner in trying to get the Bangladeshis out, and he took the heat off them at crucial times.

The fielding was less than impressive and the less said about the batting the better. The fact that a team with three players totalling in excess of 10,000 ODI runs slid from 157/4 to 191 all out, only thanks to a last-wicket rearguard, probably says it all.

It will have to be good, tight, sharp cricket from here on if India are to survive into the Super Eights. Survival is the key word now, not progress.

Teams: (from) India: Rahul Dravid (capt), Virender Sehwag, Robin Uthappa, Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Dinesh Karthik, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Irfan Pathan, Ajit Agarkar, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Anil Kumble, Munaf Patel, S. Sreesanth.

Bermuda: Irving Romaine (capt), Dean Minors, Delyone Borden, Lionel Cann, David Hemp, Kevin Hurdle, Malachi Jones, Stefan Kelly, Dwayne Leverock, Saleem Mukuddem, Stephen Outerbridge, Oliver Pitcher, Clay Smith, Janeiro Tucker, Kwame Tucker Match Referee: Alan Hurst Umpires: Aleem Dar, Ian Howell Third Umpire: Daryl Harper, 4th umpire : Steve Davis.

UNI