Bermuda's national team cricketers step out for a final World Cup rehearsal against Zimbabwe at Arnos Vale today desperate to shed the tag of tournament whipping boys.

If they weren't already considered the event's rank outsiders, then Monday's 241-run walloping by England — when they were skittled out for a miserable 45 — has left the punters in no doubt about where they shouldn't put their money.

One online bookmaker yesterday listed Bermuda as a massive 5000-1 underdog. Australia, who defeated Zimbabwe by 106 runs on Tuesday, were ranked the 9-4 favourites.

Those kind of odds won't sit well with the Bermuda players who continue to insist they're a much better team than reflected by recent results.

Having lost four of their five one-day matches in the World Cricket League in Kenya last month — the sole success being a meaningless victory over Scotland in the final game — Gus Logie's men have since been well beaten by Bangladesh, Canada and England.

And with just today's match remaining and then six more days before they finally appear on the big stage for their opening group game against Sri Lanka in Trinidad, time's fast running out to prove their point.

Wicketkeeper and opener Dean Minors agreed that today's game would mean an awful lot to the players as they attempted to recover from Monday's mauling.

"You know I haven't slept the last couple of nights because I've been nervous. I know this team is just so much better than we showed against England," he said as he took a break during a three-hour training session at the Sion Hill grounds yesterday morning.

"Personally I felt I let down the team and the country, I should have stayed in just a little bit longer and watched the ball a bit more.

"I know some of the other guys feel the same way. We're better than that."

Minors, who executed a smart stumping to dismiss key England batsman Kevin Pietersen off Dwayne Leverock and also helped the big spinner get rid of Paul Collingwood with a catch behind, said team morale probably had been affected by the margin of defeat against England — despite a respectable performance in the field.

"The funny thing is the bowling and fielding gave us a whole lot of confidence," he added.

"But, you know, I think we forgot that we still had to bat! So yes, tomorrow's game is so important and that's why we we're out here working as hard as we possibly can.

"I think our whole approach to the game will be different. I think we've all now got rid of the butterflies.

"Tomorrow we have to put up a better performance and everybody in the team knows that."

Bermuda's line-up is unlikely to be announced until this morning with both sides, as was the case in the England match, being allowed to rotate 13 players in the field.

Skipper Irving Romaine enjoyed a full session in the nets yesterday, apparently recovered from the concussion suffered when he fell to the ground and cracked his head while dismissing England's Ian Bell with a spectacular catch.

He's expected to be given the all-clear to play, as is pace bowler Stefan Kelly who appears to have shrugged off the hamstring injury which has kept him out of the last three matches.

The biggest question mark may be over Janeiro Tucker who, although able to train yesterday, might still be feeling the affects of the groin injury he picked up in the game against Bangladesh.

Meanwhile, Logie wasn't revealing whether or not he would continue with the opening pair of Minors and OJ Pitcher, the latter having pushed Clay Smith further down the order on Monday.

"I don't think we've decided whether we'll go with that again," commented Minors.

"I think it was just an experiment by the coach. But tomorrow we have to finalise that line-up. It's our last game before the World Cup, we have to stabilise everything. There's no more practice after tomorrow, it's the real deal. We have to get it right."

After watching Zimbabwe put up a respectable showing against Australia on Wednesday when the defending World Cup champions hit 270 for seven in their 50 overs and the Africans replied with 184 for seven — also using up their entire 50 overs — Minors agreed they would be a tough side to beat.

"They were good, they were very good. I really enjoyed watching them, their approach to the game should have been what our approach was against England.

"They took their time, they didn't get flustered when they lost early wickets, they batted sensibly.

"It was kind of ironic with their opening batsmen both going for five (the same score Minors made against England) but the rest of the bats were able to stabilise and do what they had to do.

"Their whole approach to the game was something we could definitely learn from.

"It's a lesson we have to take into this World Cup, to go out there and just bat solidly and put up a reasonable total."