Bayuemas Oval, Selangor (Bermuda won toss): Singapore (2pts) beat Bermuda by three wickets

Bermuda crashed out of contention for promotion from the Pepsi ICC World Cricket League Division Three after a third abject batting display this morning that, try as Kamau Leverock might, was beyond rescue — and, in all likelihood, explanation.

Bowled out for a paltry 127 in only 27.5 overs, Bermuda’s third unfathomable score in four innings at the six-team tournament, Janeiro Tucker’s side left themselves too much to do.

Leverock, who did his part in at least getting the team to their third-highest total on the tour with 28 from 38 balls at No 8, put a fright into the Singaporeans with two wickets in his first two overs just before lunch to reduce the Division Four champions to 92 for five.

After the break, the seam bowler picked up another before being rested inexplicably to allow the expensive Malachi Jones to bowl a solitary over that went for six — gold dust for Singapore in the context of this low-scoring affair — and contributed to alarming figures of none for 23 from three for the Island’s pre-eminent strike bowler, who is enduring a lean time in Malaysia.

Although Allan Douglas Jr shed the wicketkeeping gloves to claim a return catch with his off spin and heighten the sense of tension, a nervous Singapore got over the line.

They, unlike Bermuda, had done enough. And when their Nos 8 and 9 combined to take eight off the first three balls of Delray Rawlins’s tenth over, Bermuda’s landscape suddenly shifted from a possible but unlikely date in Namibia in January 2015 to the penance of the cricketing backwater that is Division Four — an alarming slide for a country who were at the World Cup only seven years ago.

The match tomorrow against Uganda, the once-beaten leaders, is now a must-win affair to avoid relegation — and even then Bermuda will need help because of the worst net run-rate of the six teams.

Leverock had not been called upon by Tucker until the 21st over of the Singapore innings, with the Asian side having reached 79 for three and opener Chaminda Kumarage untroubled on 49 not out from 61 balls.

But Leverock, after conceding boundaries to the right-hander with his second and third balls, struck with the fourth to have Kumarage caught by Terryn Fray for 57.

That brought two new batsmen to the wicket in partnership and prompted the recall of left-arm spinner Rawlins after two Jones overs disappeared for 17.

Rawlins has been a beacon of light with the ball for Bermuda on what is verging on an inauspicious tour — as Christian Burgess has been with the bat — but Singapore appeared intent in keeping him at bay while going at those who put pace on the ball. His one over before lunch went for three runs, to go with an earlier spell of 7-0-19-0.

After Jordan DeSilva trapped Arjun Mutreja, who made a polished century in the abandoned match yesterday, for a duck with the third ball of the Singapore innings, Dion Stovell’s off spin gave Bermuda hope that their paltry total might be enough. Stovell picked up two wickets before Kumarage restored Singapore’s place in the ascendancy.

Earlier, Bermuda made a mess of supposedly favourable conditions, given that they won the toss, with a batting display that may have bettered the scores against the United States (106) and Nepal (100) numerically but stood alongside them for an ineptness more associated with “hit and giggle” cricketers.

A rare failure for Burgess, who made 11, was a killer blow for a top order that has struggled to fire on the Malay Archipelago and in the end it took Leverock’s knock in the tailend to guide Bermuda from 81 for six in 16 overs. Extras, with 20, was the next highest contributor.

By the time the match ended at about 3.25am Bermuda time, Nepal had just completed the tenth over of their reply to the United States’ 223 for nine in the other match that had been rescheduled from Monday’s abandonments.

Proper cricket.