The only positive that Bermuda can take from a positively humiliating defeat by Nepal yesterday is that they are only two points from the top-two position that is required to win promotion to the Pepsi ICC World Cricket League Division Two tournament in Namibia in three months’ time.

But in reality, those two points are light years away given the evidence of a second shocking batting display — eight wickets for 23 runs in 20.3 overs at one stage — this one augmented by a bowling performance that marks Bermuda as comfortably the worst of the six teams in Malaysia.

Making no attempt to sugar-coat yet another inept batting display from Bermuda was Allan Douglas, the team’s coach.

“We just can’t bat,” Douglas said. “We had to post a score in a 50-over match to give ourselves a chance and we haven’t given ourselves a chance to win a match because we are just not batting. There is no excuses for bad application. Guys are getting in and then playing shots that are not required at that particular time.

“We just need to buckle down and burn out some overs. At the end of the day, batsmen have to bat and bowlers bowl and our batsmen haven’t come to the party.

“It’s about going back to the basics, which we need to do well. We’ll work on that tomorrow in training and hopefully it will work out.”

The statistics after yesterday are not in the favour of Janeiro Tucker’s side, as they will need to win their three remaining matches just to have an outside chance of promotion.

The better bet is that they instead aim for damage limitation and a salvaging of pride, but the road is not likely to get any easier or any more palatable for even the most tunnel-visioned supporter.

Next up after today’s day of reflection — ostensibly a day off for the six combatants — are Malaysia, the host nation, who will be buoyed after victory over the United States; the same team who beat Bermuda on the opening day without barely batting an eyelid.

Singapore, the other supposed soft touch, have already beaten Malaysia and went down yesterday by one run on the last ball to Uganda, the early leaders, who have Bermuda’s number based on their exploits in last year’s Division Three tournament in Bermuda.

So to the cricket and the cringeworthy state of affairs after a combination of Tucker, bizarrely promoted up the order to open in a plan that clearly backfired, Terryn Fray, Tre Manders and Christian Burgess guided Bermuda to 77 for two shortly after the first drinks interval.

Tucker had perished for a quickfire 17 from 14 balls that included two fours and a six. Had the captain’s promotion been part of a plan to hit Nepal early and hard, the shortsightedness of it was exposed with him being followed by Manders and Burgess, who are among the team’s more circumspect strokeplayers, as their career strike-rates at international level would suggest.

But in such players are heroes to be found and, after Fray was caught and bowled by Amrit Bhattarai for the left-arm seam bowler’s second wicket, the pair provided the early highlight of Bermuda’s tour.

Burgess had reached a team-high 28 from 40 in 68 minutes, with four fours, when he was run out to end a 48-run stand that took 62 balls.

“One brings two” is normally the cry of a fielding team when searching for the positives to try to break a troubling partnership. One — Manders for 21 from 45 balls — brought six!

Left-arm spinners Shakti Gauchan and Basant Regmi, plus a second run-out, were at the main in a 34-ball spell that spirited Bermuda from a potentially competitive total to abject embarrassment.

That the innings lasted into the 41st over was down to the doggedness of Kamau Leverock and Delray Rawlins, who persevered in partnership for the ninth wicket for two balls short of 11 overs before the innings was quickly ended on 100.

If coach Douglas thought he, and not the pneumonia-stricken Arnold Manders, was in need of a hospital pass, bad became worse after lunch as Nepal sprinted to victory at almost ten runs an over.

The wickets fell to Tucker, who in taking the new ball seemed intent on leading from the front throughout, and Leverock, but no bowler was spared punishment.

Single overs from Del Hollis, Allan Douglas Jr and Dion Stovell went for double digits, with only Leverock’s figures of one from 26 from 4.1 overs looking remotely acceptable. Malachi Jones was strangely not used. Binod Bhandari hit eight fours and a six in his 31-ball 43 not out and opener Subash Khakurel made 30 as Nepal concluded affairs in 11.1 overs to ensure that Bermuda, after the 48.4-over contest against the US, have now been on the field for exactly 100 overs — two matches with nothing to show for it.

It has been said that this is not a good time for Bermuda cricket. Some home truths are being exacted 10,000 miles from home.