Choking India in style

Bangladesh's fantastic five-wicket demolition of India at Port-of-Spain - their 34th ODI win but only their fifth against a top-tier team - was built upon some outstanding work by the bowlers and in the field. They bowled 199 dot balls - that's 33.1 overs of runless play. Even when India did get the ball away, it was mostly for singles and twos - Bangladesh only conceded 13 fours and one six in the entire Indian innings. In a particularly asphyxiating passage of play, they didn't concede a single boundary for 88 deliveries, from the 19th to the 33rd over - during that period they conceded just 43 runs as India's batsmen suffered another bout of strokelessness, a disease that had plagued them throughout the one-day series in West Indies last season.

Bangladesh's stand-out bowler was Mashrafe Mortaza, the Man of the Match. In 9.3 accurate and hostile overs, he gave the batsmen little breathing space. The amount of movement he managed was impressive, and so was his control over length - only eight of the 63 deliveries he bowled weren't on a good length. Sourav Ganguly, India's top-scorer, managed just three runs from the 22 deliveries he faced off Mortaza.

Ganguly, though, fought on to register his fifth fifty-plus score against Bangladesh - his average against them is now 57.37.

If Mortaza shook India with the ball, then Tamim Iqbal rattled them with a scintillating blast against India's new-ball attack. Off the 25 balls he faced from Zaheer Khan, he hammered 32, including five fours and a stunning six over long-on. At 17 years and 362 days, Tamim became the youngest debutant to score a half-century in World Cups, and also only the second Bangladesh batsman to score a half-century on debut. The only other Bangladeshi to achieve the feat is Farhad Reza, who made exactly 50 against Zimbabwe at Harare in July last year.

India can still make it to the Super Eights, but their path has been significantly queered. To get to the next stage, they'll obviously have to win both their remaining matches. If Bangladesh beat Sri Lanka as well (and assuming all teams beat Bermuda), the match between India and Sri Lanka will be a virtual elimination game, with the loser out of the tournament.

If Sri Lanka beat Bangladesh, and if India win their two remaining games, three teams will be tied on four points each, and net run rate (NRR) will decide which two make it to the next round. Sri Lanka's huge win against Bermuda means they are favourably placed at the moment, and both India and Bangladesh will need to register similarly convincing wins against Bermuda to prop up their NRR. The last match of the group features Bangladesh versus Bermuda, which ensures Bangladesh will know exactly what they'll need to do to make it to the Super Eights.