Tigers leap into last eight & send India crashing out

Trinidad, World Cup, Group B:
Bangladesh 96/3 (17.3 overs; max 21) beat
Bermuda 94/9 (21 overs) by three wickets (D/L method)

A nervy Bangladesh rode their luck tonight to qualify for the Super Eights and in so doing sent India spinning out of the tournament.

That a nation of over a billion people should have to rely on an island of under 70,000 to bail them out represented a spectacular fall from grace for a team which reached the final last time around, winning nine games in the process.

Following heavy rain and thunderstorms the match was reduced from 50 overs-a-side to 41 overs each, then following further rainstorms down to 35 overs per team, 30 overs per innings and finally a 21 over slogathon.

    

And having clubbed 94 from their innings Bermuda had Bangladesh in all sorts of trouble early on, Tamim Iqbal succumbing to a spectacular catch by Kevin Hurdle, who ran all the way from third man to deep point and dived full length to dismiss Iqbal for just one.

6 for 1 soon became 30 for 2 and then 37 for 3 as the pressure began to tell - Saleem Mukuddem's pacy inswingers accounting for Aftab Ahmed (7) and Shahriar Nafees (12) - to leave the Tigers needing 59 runs from 83 balls to go through.

    

But India's miracle never materialised, the Bermudans falling about 30 runs short as captain Mohammad Ashraful and Saqibul Hasan steered Bangladesh into the second phase with 21 balls to spare.