<b>Cricket</b>: Sri Lanka beat India by 69 runs

A crushing 69-run defeat at the hands of Sri Lanka saw India virtually out of the World Cup after an insipid batting display in their final group engagement at the Queen's Park Oval.

Only a cricketing miracle of Bermuda defeating Bangladesh in their last league tomorrow will ensure India's passage to the Super Eight after losing two of its three group ties.

India's lone win was against Bermuda which had kept its hopes alive after the inexplicable loss to Bangladesh.

Set a challenging target of 255 on a batsmen-friendly wicket, the famed Indian line-up floundered once again to be bowled out for 185 in 43.3 overs on Friday - pushing the 1983 winners and 2003 finalists towards a first round elimination.

Sri Lanka, who had already qualified for the Super Eight after beating Bermuda and Bangladesh in their previous matches, weathered a tidy bowling performance by India to post a challenging 254 for six.

The Lankans owed their score to a 83-run partnership between Chamara Silva (59) and Tillekaratne Dilshan (38) after opener Upul Tharanga (64) had done the spade work.

Captain Dravid was a dejected man after the loss. "I thought it (255) was a good score to chase. We had the batting, we had an extra batsman. But we kept losing wickets," Dravid said after the match.

"We needed a partnership. The three-four wickets early in the innings put pressure on us." India kept losing wickets while going for big shots when a sensible partnership was the need of the hour. (PTI)