Bayeumas Oval, Selangor (Bermuda won toss): Uganda (2pts) beat Bermuda by seven wickets

Bermuda’s fitful journey through the Pepsi ICC World Cricket League Division Three tournament in Malaysia has ended in an almost predictable relegation farther into the nether regions of the world game after a seven-wicket drubbing by Uganda today.

Again Bermuda failed miserably with the bat, this time mustering 140 while leaving 61 balls unused. Uganda, whose promotion back to Division Two had already been secured, knocked off the runs with impetuous ease and lost their final two wickets at the death only when the result was beyond doubt.

For Bermuda, the only unfinished business is to determine the final order in a fifth-place play-off tomorrow against a disappointing United States, whose genuine hopes of promotion turned to demotion and, no doubt, bitter recrimination after defeat by Singapore in a rain-affected match.

But make no mistake, Bermuda have been the worst team in the six-nation event — and by a distance.

The last indignity came hours later when the Bermuda management team was informed that Allan Douglas Jr, the team’s part-time off spinner, was reported for a suspected illegal bowling action.

The lack of self-belief that Bermuda could avoid relegation — a big win over the Ugandans, coupled with something similar by the US against Singapore was required, owing to a vastly inferior net run-rate — manifested itself in a team selection that did not include Janeiro Tucker, the captain, Lionel Cann or, for the third match in succession, Del Hollis.

If this was an attempt by interim coach Allan Douglas to gaze into the future, his crystal ball could not have revealed too much because the rot on this tour has already set in.

That Bermuda hit ten fours and six sixes compared with Uganda’s 11 fours and two sixes in the 24.5 overs required to win the match speaks volumes for an agricultural approach to batting that is a recipe for disaster when pitted against international class bowling attacks.

Terryn Fray, who could have used being taken out of the firing line after scoring 21 runs in the first four matches, completed his sad descent from Cup Match hero in August to “Clueless in October” with another anonymous performance.

The right-hander, whose feats at Somerset Cricket Club over two glorious days were the highlight of the domestic summer, endured a painstaking 14 balls at the crease without scoring before falling to his fifteenth when he was bowled by Frank Nsubuga.

That Nsubuga, the Uganda captain, bowls off spin was telling in that Bermuda lost nine wickets to slow bowling to further the belief that the Island’s best domestic cricketers become something significantly less than the sum of their parts when pace is taken off the ball.

Seven batsmen made starts, with Onias Bascome given his debut at this level at No 3, but no one went on to a total that could have assisted in giving the bowlers a foothold in the match.

Bascome, who was drafted into the squad at the eleventh hour after the withdrawal of Temiko Wilson, spent the most time in the middle over his 18, although 66 minutes to face 38 balls suggested that there was a good bit of time spent in the “safe zone” — at the non-striker’s end.

But a start is a start and Bascome should be among those who are seen as the future when the Bermuda Cricket Board goes back to the drawing board, as it surely must do after what has become unflatteringly comparable to the original “Tour from Hell” to the same country 17 years ago.

Douglas was the coach back then, too, but, like Bascome on this occasion, he came aboard at the last minute when Arnold Manders was ruled out for health reasons and could be afforded a degree of sympathy.

On the field, where compassion for Bermuda’s new-found plight is thin on the ground, Kamau Leverock led the batting for the second match in a row with 27 from 25 balls. He shared in the only partnership of substance, a 42-run union for the seventh wicket with stand-in captain Malachi Jones that threatened to rescue Bermuda from 53 for six.

After the 27 that Bascome and Dion Stovell, who made 16, had put on for the fourth wicket, the next best was a tenth-wicket stand of 24 between Jordan DeSilva and Delray Rawlins that ensured that Bermuda passed 130 for only the second time in the tournament.

For the third time in the four matches that Bermuda batted first, lunch was not held at the scheduled mid-innings break. So Uganda tucked into the bowling instead, racing to 75 without loss before Stovell accounted for Arthur Kyobe for 18 in the final over before lunch, the thirteenth.

The other opener, Roger Mukasa, had already become the greater cause for concern with 50 from 40 balls, including five fours and a six.

After the break, he continued on his merry way to 86 with an additional four fours and one six before his attempt to end the match in a flurry prompted the loss of two wickets so close to the finish line — one falling to Tre Manders, the most occasional of bowlers.

Stovell claimed the wicket of Mukasa to finish with two for 30 from 6.5 overs on a day when few of the other first-choice bowlers were given a look-in.

The play-off for fifth and sixth place tomorrow will be a repeat of Bermuda’s first match of the tournament after the US lost by 32 runs to Singapore on the Duckworth-Lewis method.

Given that the cricket programme in the States has been in perpetual disarray and Bermuda cricket has gone full steam ahead in figuratively distancing itself from the glory days of 2007, the fixture appears eerily prophetic.

Back to Douglas Jr, he can continue playing but has 21 days to prove that his delivery action falls within ICC guidelines. Bermuda’s rise from the ashes of the Tour from Hell II may take a fair while longer.