Today, March 21, 2007 is going to be a big day for India in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2007. Although India does not play today, a lot would depend on how things go between Bangladesh and Sri Lanka who face off in Trinidad & Tobago today. There really are only three scenarios:

Sri Lanka beats Bangladesh
This seems the most obvious outcome and will then make the group very interesting with the second round places not being decided until March 25 when Bangladesh plays Bermuda. But again, the margin of victory would be of interest to India. For India’s sake, SL needs to beat BAN by a very big margin; one big enough to make even a huge win for BAN over BER look pointless. But that’s for India’s sake, really! For their own sake, they just need to win! And then India would need to beat SL comfortably to see Bangladesh fall further behind on the net run-rate.

Bangladesh beats Sri Lanka
Now this would truly open up some possibilities. For one, it would put Bangladesh in the best position to qualify and even a close win over Bermuda later in the week would see them through and with two points! But this scenario would turn the India v Sri Lanka match into a knock out game with the loser certainly going home.

Washout/Tie
If today’s match is washed out or tied, it doesn’t help India much since it allows both Sri Lanka and Bangladesh to go ahead of India on points. For India, this may help: if the Bermuda v Bangladesh match ends with a point being shared and Sri Lanka has beaten Bangladesh, India may just have a better chance of going through. Of course, India needs to beat Sri Lanka for any of this to be of consequence, but assuming that happens, then the rains on Sunday could well make Group B clearer!

Whatever the outcome, the task for India is clear: beat Sri Lanka by a hefty margin. What happens in the other matches won’t really affect them in that case. Ah, but if Bangladesh can beat Sri Lanka, then the fruits of a successful task on Friday are more assured!