Bangladesh’s loss could turn out to be Bermuda’s gain as the Island team continue their bid for a first win on their World Cup debut.

Bangladesh came crashing back to earth at the Queen’s Park Oval on Wednesday, courtesy of a 198-run loss to a Sri Lanka team that put them in pole position to secure one of the two spots in the Super Eight, with one match remaining against India at the same venue today.

The Tigers’ heavy defeat has revived hopes of Bermuda achieving a favourable result that only six days ago might have seemed impossible, when the two teams meet for the second time in just over a month on Sunday in Port of Spain.

After lopsided losses to Sri Lanka and India, Bermuda are looking to catch Bangladesh off guard and spring an upset at the Oval. And with team morale intact, Bermuda skipper Irving Romaine thinks he has the right formula to get the job done as his charges bid to salvage some pride.

“Bangladesh are a very young team and so they do tend to be a bit up and down in terms of results. But they are still good day on their day, though they also make similar mistakes to us,” he said.

While Bermuda have only pride left to play for, there is much at stake for Bangladesh in today’s match involving Sri Lanka and India as the final spot in the Super Eight from Group B remains up for grabs.

A Sri Lanka win today would place Dav Whatmore’s team in the driver’s seat psychologically, knowing that a win against Bermuda would see them safely through to the next stage. An Indian victory, however, would see the pressure fall squarely on Bangladesh who would find themselves in a must-win situation against Bermuda in their final group match, a game they would also have to win convincingly.

In the likelihood that both India and Bangladesh win their final games in Trinidad to finish level on points with each other and Sri Lanka, the final berth in the Super Eight from Group B would have to be decided on run rate.

And that’s where Romaine thinks the Asians might play right into his team’s hands in search of quick runs.

“I think on Sunday the pressure will be on them because they will be looking for their second win, and this could work to our benefit,” he added. “If they need to win with a good run rate, then they could throw their wickets away in pursuit of quick runs.”

Romaine, who has indicated he may continue on as national team skipper after the World Cup, said making early inroads with the new ball would be central to his team’s chance for success.

“They don’t have much depth in their batting. Their top order is their main run getters, and if we can break into their top order, then they will have to change their game plan,” he said.

“But we can still make an impact in the tournament, although I don’t think they will take us lightly.” The two countries met each other in an official ODI last month in Antigua where Test side Bangladesh registered a comfortable eight-wicket win against their Associate rivals. Romaine, however, believes his team can reverse that result.

“When we played them in Antigua Lionel (Cann) had a good innings and so they know that we are no pushovers. They didn’t run through us and I think we actually threw away our wickets,” he said.

“So it wasn’t a case of someone like Malinga (Sri Lanka pacer Lasith Malinga) beating us for pace, and I think Sunday should be a good game because our guys really want to do well with the tremendous support we have here.”

Bermuda scored 205 runs off the Bangladesh attack at the Antigua Recreation Ground last month. And Romaine believes that achievement in itself is enough to inspire his batsmen, who have struggled in Port of Spain, to lift their game and make the necessary adjustments against what he termed as “quality bowling”.

“It’s always been hard for our top order to make runs against quality bowling. I think our batsmen really want to do well, but we are just facing some top quality bowling right now,” he said.

“It’s a situation where the bowlers out here are bowling wicket to wicket with both swing and pace and usually playing at the Associate level you either face a swing bowler like Canada’s Umar Batti or an out-and-out fast bowler like Henry Osinde.

“But when you are dealing with guys bowling at 90 miles per hour and also swinging the ball about, then it’s a whole new experience for our batsmen.”