Bayeumas Oval, Selangor (Bermuda won toss): United States beat by Bermuda by ten wickets

It lasted only 34.5 overs. No, not the Bermuda innings. The match.

These are the darkest of days.

For the cricketers in Malaysia who have been trapped in an unequal marriage since they said “I do” to the Pepsi ICC World Cricket League and for those bleeding hearts at home who were blinkered enough to believe that Bermuda stood much more than a ghost of a chance against progressive countries despite compelling evidence to the contrary over the course of a regressive domestic programme at senior level in 2014.

Today’s latest humiliation was marked by what can be perceived only as a downing of tools over 2½ hours of rudderless cricket that should sway the benefit-of-the-doubters firmly towards the critics’ corner and test the patience of even the most devout cheerleaders.

The details of the fifth-place play-off against the United States, other than winning another toss, do not make for pleasant reading.

All out for 113 in 19.3 overs with a batting line-up that, apart from the bravely inadequate Terryn Fray at the top of the order, appeared to be decided at the roulette table — Russian roulette, more like.

As early as the ninth over, the score was 50 for six and the match was over as a contest.

The one constant was that the No 8 batsman was the top scorer for the third successive match; not Kamau Leverock, whose ball came to rest on “red 3”, but Jordan DeSilva, who stroked 39 from 41 balls, with five fours and a six.

Christian Burgess made 21 and only two others, plus Extras, reached double figures.

Were there any doubt that interim coach Allan Douglas’s pleas for the group to salvage a modicum of pride before heading home were ignored during what appeared to be a Twenty20 approach to batting, none existed when they took to the field.

Apart from acting captain Malachi Jones bowling Delray Rawlins for the seventh, ninth, eleventh and thirteenth overs, the ball was thrown around to the likes of Onias Bascome, Tre Manders, Burgess, who went on tour as the first-choice wicketkeeper, and, finally, Allan Douglas Jr, in what may be viewed as an act of petulance after the off spinner was reported yesterday for a suspected illegal bowling action.

In short, Bermuda did not try to win an international cricket match and for that there can be no excuses.

Were this a horse race, Bermuda would be brought before the stewards to answer charges that they fell foul of the non-triers rule.

The US could care less, meanwhile. They have problems of their own, having not played too badly yet still finding themselves tarred by the same brush as Bermuda — relegation to Division Four, where Denmark and Italy await in 2016, plus two teams to be determined from Division Five. That group contains the likes of Oman, Jersey, Tanzania and Nigeria — hardly potential match-ups to set the pulses racing.

Fahad Babar, with 63 not out from 49 balls, and Adil Bhatti, unbeaten on 52 from 43, laid down a significant marker for when the US and Bermuda next meet, a match-winning six off Douglas’s second legal ball — the “second” was a wide — wrapping up the American response in a sprightly 51 minutes.

It is not known if the teams took lunch at the close of play or even if the caterers at Selangor Turf Club had it ready. The scheduled lunch break was still an hour or so away.

It would be fitting, perhaps, if Bermuda took theirs in a doggy bag and got out of Dodge posthaste — much as they played their final match in Malaysia.