Sri Lanka won the World Cup in 1996 and 11 years later they look like a strong contender to regain the title © AFP

The World Cup seems to be over for India, unless there is a bizarre result in the final match of Bangladesh versus Bermuda. It's wise not to expect India to go through to the Super 8's and even if they do their confidence is not going to be too good after losing two of the three matches. The only win that they have is against Bermuda.

The World champions in 1996 and 11 years later they are still looking very much part of international cricket. They look to be a team that can be a strong contender for the title this time. Sri Lankan cricket has done well, it looks healthy. This team looked so good on the field today. Full marks to them and their captain Mahela Jayawardene.

Coming to India's performance - the best possible scenario was set for them to beat Sri Lanka. It started with the curator lending a helping hand to India by preparing a pitch that was pretty good for batting. There was no grass on the surface so it was obviously going to suit the Indian batsmen.

For Rahul Dravid winning the toss was another very important outcome and he rightly decided to bowl first. I believe the pitch had a lot of help in the morning, if had India batted first with the kind of batting that India have in the top - [Sourav] Ganguly, [Virender] Sehwag and [Robin] Uthappa, who are not really equipped to play the seaming ball - I think India would have been in real trouble. But things worked out well, India bowled first. Zaheer Khan, Ajit Agarkar, Munaf Patel bowled quite well in the conditions and got some early success.

But then, the weakness we have in the Indian team is of getting exposed slowly. This was something that India would have had to face right through the tournament.

India struggled to get wickets in the middle stage where India struggled to get wickets. Harbhajan Singh disappointing once again; he just does not seem too keen to go for wickets. He seems to be quite happy just containing runs. He seems to make sure that he does'nt get hit out of the ground or get hit for a few runs in an over and not really helping the team in that stage. We saw Murali taking three wickets in the middle stage and cutting India's chances off, that's something Harbhajan doesn't do in the middle stage. The great partnership in the middle for Sri Lanka between Tillakaratne Dilshan and Chamara Silva was crucial.

The other weakness India has is bowling in the death. All three seamers [Ajit] Agarkar, Munaf Patel and Zaheer Khan had a good start, but when the pressure was on in the last few overs, the death overs. they struggled. Chaminda Vaas's innings was absolutely critical, as that took the match away. It was an innings which took the Sri Lankan total from 225 to 254 and that's when it started feeling that it is not going to be easy for India.

Coming to India's batting, the top order again looked a little tentative. Virender Sehwag was playing well, Sachin [Tendulkar] fell early. When Ganguly, Uthappa and Tendulkar got out, there [Rahul] Dravid, Sehwag, Yuvraj [Singh] and [Mahendra Singh] Dhoni still remained.

Sehwag's wicket was the turning point in the match. Once that wicket fell, it was too much to expect. These guys have won India games before in pressure situation and they were still there, so India still had hopes. But then the champion quality of Sri Lanka came through, their fielding, which is so clinical came to good use, singles were not given away easily, and the champion offspinner, Muttiah Muralitharan, who seems to be really charged up this World Cup. I think he knows that this may be his last World Cup and he just looks like he has got this youthful exuberance of five years back coming back to him. He just looked outstanding.

Virender Sehwag's wicket was the turning point of the match. Once he fell, it was too much to expect © AFP

It was a superb decision to come and bowl round the wicket to the right hand batsman. Harbhajan Singh still is uncomfortable bowling round the wicket after so many years in his bowling career. Muttiah Muralitharan came round the wicket and bowled well. Chaminda Vaas got hit for a few runs today, but overall they [Sri Lanka] are a superior team being more proficient in all departments of the game than India. They had to in win the end.

It was a real chance for India was to skittle Sri Lanka out close to 200, and then some of their batsmen could get together and get that big score - but all this did not happen inspite of it being a perfect setting for India to win the game. The conditions, the outcome of the toss - the decision to bat second, everything was just right for India.

What was exposed was India's overall strength as a cricket team. Obviously there will be reactions and definitely over-reactions after this result. We all need to take a deep breath, may be the players can just unwind. We need to give them a two-three week break and then start looking forward to what one can do. There are certain important decisions to be taken as far as the Indian cricket team is concerned.

It's tragic that India's World Cup is almost over before it begun but full marks to the Sri Lankans.