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PORT OF SPAIN - Indian skipper Rahul Dravid demanded more match-winning knocks from explosive opener Virender Sehwag after he stroked a fluent century against World Cup debutants Bermuda yesterday.
The 28-year-old hammered an 87-ball 114 to steer his beleaguered team to a huge win in group B after a shock defeat against Bangladesh had the 2003 cup finalists facing a first-round exit.
Sehwag's first hundred since the home series against Pakistan in April 2005 set up a one-day record victory margin of 257 runs after India piled up a cup record total of 413 for five.
"Whenever he is in a purple patch, you see a few things in him. That has been evident all along. We expect a lot more from him," Dravid said.
Man of the match Sehwag added: "I had the confidence but I had to deliver. Thank God it happened at the right time."
Irate Indian fans and former players had demanded Sehwag's sacking after he made two in India's loss to Bangladesh last week.
Sehwag had scored just one 50 in his last 14 innings and had been in danger of being dropped for the World Cup.
In yesterday's other match, hosts the West Indies confirmed their spot in the Super 8 with a six-wicket win over Zimbabwe in Jamaica.
Chasing 203, the West Indies won with 13 balls to spare, captain Brian Lara finishing unbeaten on 44 and Dwayne Bravo making 37 not out. The Windies had been wobbling at 129 for four before the pair came together.
"We will see that match as being the first match of the second round for us," Lara said of their final pool match against likely fellow Super 8 qualifiers Ireland on Saturday. "We want the points [from the Irish game] to [help] get to the semifinals."
And Ireland's Niall O'Brien, who helped eliminate 1992 champions Pakistan from the cup, said his ultimate ambition was to play test cricket, probably for England.
The 25-year-old scored 72 to earn the man of the match award and lavish praise from his captain in Sunday's win. His short term goal is to cement his first team place at new English county side Northamptonshire, but eventually he wants to follow countryman Ed Joyce into the England team.
"I want to play cricket at the highest level and obviously that's test match cricket ... realistically it's with England," O'Brien said.
* Pakistan board chairman Nasim Ashraf has offered to resign after the team's disastrous performance at the cup. A private television channel Geo announced the resignation, but it was not confirmed. The channel said Ashraf had sent his resignation to the chief patron of the board, President Pervez Musharraf.
* Sir Garfield Sobers joined Herschelle Gibbs, the newest member of cricket's most exclusive 6-6-6-6-6-6 club, to present a million-dollar cheque to charity.
South African Gibbs emulated the West Indian's feat last week when he became the first man to hit six sixes in an over in an international, striking Dutch bowler Daan van Bunge for 36. Only three men have achieved the act, with Sobers and India's Ravi Shastri getting their record in first class cricket.
Gibbs' accomplishment was recognised by whisky manufacturers Johnnie Walker who wrote a $1 million cheque which was handed over to Habitat for Humanity to build accommodation for the homeless in the Caribbean.
Sobers did the feat for Nottinghamshire against Glamorgan, and left armer Malcolm Nash, at Swansea in 1968.
