Bermuda?s search for a confidence-boosting win ahead of their first ever One-Day Internationals went horribly wrong on Saturday when they lost their one and only practice game ahead of next week?s matches by a crushing seven wickets.

Batting first against club side Clarke Road United ? who beat Bermuda by an equally convincing nine wickets just last month ? on a wonderfully true pitch at the Frank Worrell Cricket Centre, Janeiro Tucker?s side lost their first three wickets for only 22 runs in the space of 10 overs ? a lacklustre start which fatally undermined their efforts to post a competitive total in conditions which warranted a score in excess of 250.

A timely 60 not out from Tucker, as well as a beautifully paced fifty from all-rounder Saleem Mukuddem helped to make the best of a bad situation, but against a talented local team boasting among their ranks some of the best young batting talent in the Caribbean, a total of 214 was never going to be enough.

Rain intervened around five minutes before United were due to start their reply and did not let up for close to an hour and a half.

When it eventually did, the hosts were presented with a revised target of 150 to chase in 35 overs ? an assignment they dealt with all too easily as Bermuda?s seam bowlers in particular struggled to find the right areas on a consistent basis.

As coach Gus Logie was prepared to admit afterwards, this was a shoddy performance by Bermuda, who were outthought and outfought in every department of the game by an outfit who really had no right to be bullying a national side with a guaranteed spot in the World Cup.

The tone for the day was set in the first half hour as Bermuda?s shortcomings at the top of the order were ruthlessly exposed once again.

With the score on 12, former team physio Daniel Morgan was the first to go, dragging a ball onto his stumps although it pitched at least a foot outside off stump.

Given an opportunity to impress ahead of their more established team-mates, lefthanders Treadwell Gibbons jr and Azeem Pitcher failed to capitalise at two and three, both departing cheaply to average shots and leaving their side in a hole as a result.

Gibbons, who looked uncomfortable throughout his brief stay at the wicket, top edged a cut shot straight into the hands of point, while Pitcher followed soon after, driving a good length ball straight back into the hands of a grateful Christian Harris.

The tall 17-year-old seamer, who is expected to push for a place in the West Indies Under-19 team in the not too distant future, took all of the first three wickets to fall, owing his success more to accuracy and impatient batsmen than to any extravagant movement or extra pace.

To their credit, Mukuddem and Irving Romaine then stopped the rot with a patient partnership of 83, foregoing the aerial route to a large extent and taking advantage of the large gaps on the Centre?s spacious ground, scorched brown by the sun following a lengthy dry season.

Boundaries were at a premium, however, as United?s quartet of spinners kept the Bermudians in check by bowling flat and accurately to a collection of well-set fields.

Perhaps impatient to up the tempo, Mukuddem suddenly called Romaine through for an extremely tight single, only to watch in horror as his partner, looking confident on 31, was run out by a yard following a sharp piece of fielding from the effervescent Adrian Barath at backward point.

The dismissal came at a bad time: just as Mukuddem and Romaine had got themselves in and were looking to accelerate, and prompted a crucial loss of momentum which was ultimately to cost Bermuda dear.

Unperturbed, Mukuddem forged ahead in typically sensible vain, reaching 50 off 76 balls, before he was adjudged caught behind attempting to cut the spin of Mahadeo Bodoe ? a decision which did not go down well with the usually unflappable South African.

At 109 for five off 33 overs, Bermuda were in trouble, and it took a suitably inspired captain?s innings off 60 not out from Janeiro Tucker, not to mention a quickfire 41 from wicketkeeper batsman Dean Minors, to drag the side?s total beyond the psychologically important 200 mark.

Playing circumspectly to bePlaying circumspectly to begin with, Tucker stepped on the gas in the final 10 overs, putting on 63 with Minors in a stand replete with powerfully struck boundaries and plenty of scampering between the wickets.

With the elongated rain break forcing the umpires to establish a revised and worryingly low target, the key to a Bermudian victory was making early inroads with the new ball on a wicket enlivened by the injection of moisture.

But as has often been the case in the past, Bermuda?s premier seam bowlers were unable to make the necessary inroads, producing far too many loose deliveries when penetrative accuracy was the name of the game.

Making his national team debut, George O?Brien jr was, along with Mukuddem, the pick of the attack and was unlucky to end wicketless, while Kevin Hurdle and Ryan Steede blew hot and cold.

All the talk before the game has been of the inclusion in United?s side of the 16-year old batting sensation Adrian Barath, who has been branded the next Brian Lara in these parts because of the colossal number of runs he has scored at a junior level.

But even when he was removed early on by one of the few good deliveries of Hurdle?s four-over opening spell ? which induced a thick edge through to Minors ? United?s batsman were never under any significant pressure and they cantered to victory with almost five overs to spare.

Hoping to put this disappointing defeat behind them, the Bermuda squad were at the Queen?s Park Oval yesterday to catch a glimpse of this week?s opponents, Zimbabwe, in action against the West Indies and will be checking into their Port of Spain hotel this afternoon.

They then have two days to prepare for the first match of the tri-series against Canada on Wednesday and will have to produce a far stronger performance than they did on the weekend if they are to make it through to the final this Saturday.