The opening  match

West Indies started their World Cup campaign in style at Jamaica's Sabina Park by beating Pakistan by 54 runs. After Inzamam-ul-Haq won the toss and chose to field, Chris Gayle's horrid form with the bat continued when he was caught by Kamran Akmal off Umar Gul's bowling. Shivnarine Chanderpaul also departed early, while Ramnaresh Sarwan was out for 49. Marlon Samuels hit a quickfire 63 and Brian Lara scored 37 but the surprise package was Dwayne Smith, who scored 32 of just 15 balls with two massive sixes. His innings powered the West Indies to a respectable total of 241.

Pakistan started the run chase disastrously and lost their first three wickets for 39 runs. Mohammed Yousuf (37) and Inzi (36) consolidated the innings with a stand of 60. Then Shoaib Malik attacked the bowlers and scored 62, an innings that proved a lost cause as no one was there to support him. Smith, who was named Man of the Match for his all-round performance, got three wickets, as did Dwayne Bravo.

Day 2 and 3

Australia defeated Scotland by 203 runs, while Kenya beat Canada by seven wickets after bowling them out for 199. Sri Lanka thrashed Bermuda by a massive margin of 243 runs after amassing 321 for the loss of six wickets then bowling the minnows out for 78.

Ireland and Zimbabwe played a wonderful match which ended in a tie. After the Irish scored 221for nine off their 50 overs, Zimbabwe looked on track for a victory, but some brilliant fielding and bowling  ensured a nailbiting finish -- and their final wicket fell of the very last ball with the scores level.

Day 4 and 5

New Zealand defeated England while South Africa caned the Netherlands, Herschelle Gibbs hiting six sixes in a single over to emulate the feats of Garfield Sobers and Ravi Shastri. 

March 17 was the day the minnows broke records, though I think the word "minnows," will be used with lesser frequency in the world of cricket after the day's double shock.

India were well and truly beaten by Bangladesh by five wickets after Verinder Sehwag and Robin Uthappa threw their wickets away again to trigger a batting collapse. They managed to post a total of 191 thanks to Saurav Ganguly and Yuvraj Singh, but the Bangadeshis romped home in style with an over to spare.

In the day's other match Pakistan batted first against Ireland and were bowled out for 132 in 45.4 overs. The Irish reached their target for the loss of seven wickets in 41.4 overs -- eliminating Pakistan from the tournament in the process. And if  Team India don't pull their socks ip, the runners up on the last World Cup  will also be running back home.

On March 18, Australia coasted home against the Netherlands while England defeated Canada by 51 runs. At this stage, it was going to be an acid test for India as they needed to win both their matches against Bermuda and Sri Lanka to qualify for the Super Eight group.