Virender Sehwag was given another chance by Rahul Dravid and to be honest, it was a bit of a shock to see him come in at number 3. But he seemed to be fairly controlled in his aggression as he started off with some nicely timed boundaries. The thing about Sehwag is that even when he’s trying to get back into form, he won’t scratch his way through singles and get to a quiet 20 before playing some of the big shots. His first 18 runs had four boundaries and that just showed that he was willing to wait for the bad ball on this occasion rather than make something out of nothing. It paid off as he settled into a solid partnership with Sourav Ganguly (89). Their partnership of 202 came in just 28.4 overs at an astounding 7.11 runs per over. And even when Sehwag finally fell for 114, his first hundred in two years, the run rate just climbed!

MS Dhoni tried to continue what Sehwag was doing, but fell to a brilliant catch by JJ Tucker at long off. The two catches by Bermuda to dismiss Uthappa and Dhoni would have to feature among the best of the tournament. But after this minor respite came the big onslaught.

Yuvraj Singh was narrowly given not out off a stumping chance (if you ask us, the foot was on the line which means he was out) and he decided to make the most of his second chance as he launched an assault so brutal, that the last 11 overs of India’s innings yielded 144 runs! Yuvraj’s 83 came off just 46 balls and contained 7 sixes and three boundaries. Normally, when one batsman is going so well, the other is happy to take the single and let him continue. But when the other is Sachin Tendulkar, he takes the attack back to the opposition. The result was double murder, if you will!

Tendulkar scored 57* in 29 balls (2x4, 4x6) and put on an amazing 122 in 10.2 overs with Yuvraj. India’s return to form also saw some records tumble and one can’t help but feel that Bermuda paid for Bangladesh’s success! The highest score in World Cups, the highest margin of victory in ODIs, most ducks in an innings (for Bermuda, not India!) were all records that fell on this day.

The single reason for India’s savage assault was the net run-rate situation which may arise should India beat Sri Lanka on Friday. After yesterday’s match, India’s run-rate stands at +2.507 as opposed to Sri Lanka’s +4.86. India would be hoping that Sri Lanka can inflict the same punishment on Bangladesh as they did on Bermuda and make it tougher for the Bangladesh team to catch up on run-rate with India or Sri Lanka. All this, of course, will arise if India does beat Sri Lanka. For the moment, though, there is a ray of hope.

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