Indians (from top) Yuvraj Singh, Virender Sehwag and Rahul Dravid look forlorn after losing to Sri Lanka. Photo / Reuters
It seems almost impossible - hundreds of millions of Indians are waiting to see if Bermuda can beat Bangladesh tomorrow.
Only that can prevent a hapless India team from following Pakistan out of the World Cup after defeat by Sri Lanka yesterday.
It won't end there either. India's
Australian coach Greg Chappell is now virtually certain to depart after a stormy tenure.
He tried to drop Sourav Ganguly but was neatly skewered on the sharp point of Indian cricket politics when many of his team rebelled and Ganguly stayed after a row that went all the way up to the Indian government.
It will likely spell the end of Rahul Dravid's captaincy but then he never really wanted it anyway. It will also be the last World Cup for Sachin Tendulkar - out bowled after a tentative stroke to the third ball he faced and who seemed to show more than anyone the burden of playing with the hopes of hundreds of millions.
Even Ganguly could be gone as this ageing Indian team tries to cope with the disgrace of losing not only to Sri Lanka but comparative minnows Bangladesh.
Ganguly holed out to mid-on with a stroke that reinforced Chappell's desire to drop him.
Virender Sehwag, dropped on 39 when Kumar Sangakkara could not hold a fast edge way to his right, failed to benefit and fell to Muttiah Muralitharan's doosra shortly afterwards. Yuvraj Singh ran himself out attempting a ridiculous single to short fine leg. Mahendra Dhoni also made a duck, lbw to Murali.
Dravid stuck on gamely but, by the time he holed out at long-off for 60 most of India could feel the cold wind of failure.
The batting collapse on a good Queen's Park Oval pitch condemned India to 185 all out and allowed Sri Lanka to top the group with a maximum six points after they posted a challenging total of 254 for six.
The Indian defeat somewhat detracted from Sri Lanka's magnificent showing in the World Cup so far. Sri Lanka's authoritative batting display was in start contrast to India's meek surrender.
