Bangladesh vs Sri Lanka - Whom To Support?

My predictions from yesterday were only partly right - South Africa did blast Scotland away. Kenya couldn't put it past New Zealand though, even after having the most ideal of starts to the match. I wonder if the pitch in the latter match had a lot of moisture on it prompting Kenya to put NZ in after winning the toss - in general, weaker teams are better placed if they bat first and put up a decent total. Oh well...

Moving on to tomorrow's matches. Pakistan vs Zimbabwe in normal times would have been a no-brainer, but with events as they have been in the lead-up to this match, I wouldn't rule out a Zimbabwe upset. However, a crushing Pakistan victory would be a fitting (if insignificant at this stage) tribute to the late Bob Woolmer, the true "Mr. Cricket" as one observer put it.

The second match of the day, Bangladesh vs Sri Lanka, is very interesting from an Indian perspective. If Bangladesh win tomorrow, India's match against Sri Lanka becomes a straight knock-out. However, in this scenario, India would not be able to carry any points forward to the next round - if they progress that is. In case Sri Lanka win tomorrow, we have to beat Sri Lanka and hope that our Net Run-Rate is higher than Bangladesh's at the end of the group matches. However, since Bangladesh are playing last in the group, they would be in a position to up their NRR to required levels in order to qualify.

The ideal scenario would of course be Bangladesh losing both it's remaining matches and India winning against Sri Lanka. This would mean India and Sri Lanka progessing with India carrying forward 2 points. However, looking at the performance levels of both Bangladesh and Bermuda, it looks unlikely that Bangladesh will lose their last group match. In which case, the best scenario would be for Sri Lanka to defeat Bangladesh tomorrow, but not by a huge margin. In our last match we should then ensure, in addition to winning the match of course, that our NRR is at least greater than Sri Lanka's. This way, we make sure of qualifying no matter what Bangladesh do. Of course, one point in favour of both India and Sri Lanka is the huge margins by which both teams have defeated Bermuda. I don't think that Bangladesh have it in them (yet) to score such a comprehensive victory even if it has to come against Bermuda!