March 23, 2007 will rank as probably the worst date in Indian cricketing history, when they suddenly realised their World Cup hopes were dangling on the flimsiest thread. They might as well start packing for home after playing just three games.

Their only chance of survival depends on Bermuda beating Bangladesh, and even though that's not impossible in this tournament of upsets, it looks improbable. That just means that the Indian team can take the long flight back home, having played just one game against a top eight side. Is the tournament format skewed? Maybe. But, that doesn't justify a team to nurture hopes after losing to Bangladesh (ninth ranked) or Ireland (relevant to Pakistan's cause).

What happened on the day against Sri Lanka? It started off well for the Indian's cause when Rahul Dravid won the toss. His bowlers backed him up early in the innings, with some good swing bowling. It was probably a bad day at the office for the umpires - Aleem Dar and Daryl Harper - two of the best in the game. Ajit Agarkar, Zaheer Khan and Munaf Patel all had good LBW shouts turned down. Sri Lanka were not able to turn on the scoring rate, but chugged along merrily.

It was the partnership between Tillakaratne Dilshan and Chamara Silva that took the match away from the Indians. And then the cameos of Russell Arnold and Chaminda Vaas ensured that the Indians had to chase in excess of 250. Here, more than the bowling, the field placing was to be blamed. The batsmen could take singles at leisure and there was no way in which the fielders could stop them, given their placements within the circle.

Things looked good for India for a time. Robin Uthappa was watching the ball carefully and playing on merit before starting off his stroke play. In fact, he had managed to infuriate Vaas with his shots (that could be seen in the mouthful given to the batsman on his dismissal). But it was the reflex catch that Vaas took, which stunned the Indian team. Sourav Ganguly had been playing steadily (without scoring many runs), when he was joined by Virender Sehwag, who had come back into form. He was finding the gaps on the fields and the scoreboard was ticking along well, when Ganguly went for a bold, but unwise, stroke.

Sachin Tendulkar was dismissed by a good delivery, as was Mehandra Dhoni. Dravid and Sehwag had a good partnership where the runs started flowing at a good rate, when Muttiah Murilitharan  removed Sehwag bowling round the wicket. This was probably the most crucial strike of the Indian innings. Dravid was left alone at the crease. Yuvraj Singh was run out by his captain's known talent of spotting the wrong run. And the rest was history. India collapsed 69 runs short of their target.

With hindsight, it seemed the Indians did not have a game plan, or if they had one, it was not executed properly. Someone had to keep out Vaas and Murali - the best players would have been Ganguly and Dravid at the positions they occupied. If these two were tackled, the rest of the bowling would have been easier. It was interesting to note that Murali went for nine runs in his first over against Sehwag in the Powerplay (Murali has mentioned recently that he doesn't like bowling in the Powerplay). But, on his return, the batsmen went into a shell against him and probably gave him more respect than was due.

What does the future hold for India? Greg Chappell might be sacked, Dravid will likely step down from the captaincy and Ganguly could make a comeback as captain.  And Tendulkar should retire from ODIs.

Was this an upset or was it to be expected? Let us have your views at Sportingo.