Montego Bay: The fans were still trickling in, the band had just started pounding away. But as Shivnarine Chanderpaul rolled out an elegant flick to get the 13-man practice match against India going, all the noise that's being heard here today came all the way from back home.

Why has Sachin Tendulkar been rested? Is Sourav Ganguly injured? While those in the business of breaking news were going ballistic, the truth, insisted Indian team manager Sanjay Jagdale, was hardly worth a scream.

Skipper Rahul Dravid said Tendulkar had been rested to sort out a niggle. Jagdale, also a national selector, was more specific. “It’s nothing at all. We decided not to play Sachin so that he could rest his slightly sore left shoulder, not the one that was operated on last year, some rest. As for Ganguly, he took a slight knock on his fingers yesterday at practice but he’s completely fit, that’s why he’s playing,” Jagdale told.

Apparently, Ganguly has been carrying an ankle injury, which is well under control, and it had nothing to do with the day's early drama. But thankfully, before the injury cloud could drown the warm-up game, the real noise took over. This time, from the hundreds of Indian fans, many from the US, who have reached here to cheer their team, overjoyed by the spectacular collapse of the West Indies—something that would have only dreamt of last night.

Zaheer ‘Comeback’ Khan had just managed to get Chanderpaul to slide a thin edge down the legside to Dhoni, the first West Indian wicket had fallen in the fourth over. Warm-up match? The wild Indian celebrations that followed said there was much more at stake.

Soon enough, it was party time again for India, in the next over. Ajit Agarkar had got one to jump off a good length spot outside off, forcing the dangerous Chris Gayle to offer Dhoni another sitter.

Well, this was the first time the two frontline Indian bowlers were coming together in the Caribbean—both were rested for the first warm-up game against Holland. And what's the early verdict? Quite impressive. Zaheer, of course, was simply picking up from where he let off in South Africa—slotting the ball around off and middle, just short of a length. And Agarkar was skidding them through outside off—obviously, India's best bowler on these stop-start West Indian pitches last year had not forgotten his homework.

But then, there was Brian Lara. The retort from the West Indian captain was swift, classy, even a bit brutal. Fourteen for two, so what? Zaheer was crashed through the cover fence, with Lara elegantly walking through the shot. Three balls later, there it was again, though this time the ball rolled to a stop.

Will this be Lara's World Cup? Another four, again through the covers, loud shouts of “Ooohhhhh”, then a thundering straight drive on-the-up, something only a handful of batsmen can even hope to attempt. But before you could even begin to answer that question, came a hard cut that thudded into a diving Yuvraj’s hands, and then jumped out.

The catch was dropped but the spell was broken. From 22 off 27 to 22 off 35, and finally hara-kiri in Irfan Pathan's first over off a dud that he could have hit anywhere he had wanted. Instead, Lara, probably surprised by the sudden dip in pace, around the 102 kmph, and lulled by the three wides that Pathan had already sent down, popped it back to the stunned bowler.

Will this be Lara’s World Cup? Yes, only Lara can answer that one. But is sure is that without the great batsman, the West Indies are going nowhere.

From 53 for three, after Lara walked back, the collapse was swift and stunning. Six wickets for nine runs in 35 balls, and it was virtually all over. It was a bewildering mix of wild shots and not-so-good balls - Pathan bagged three—except for that one beauty from Munaf Patel that straightened and had Ramnaresh Sarwan in a twist before he edged it to slips.

Just 85 on the board in 25.5 overs, India hardly broke sweat while jogging to an easy win. But, of course, there was the by-now-customary Sehwag flop, this time for a duck, off yet another slash to slips. But Robin Uthappa and Dinesh Kaarthick didn't let that bother them, settling down quite easily, the match virtually over by the time they reached the 11th over with 44 runs on the board.

Will this be West Indies' World Cup? Nobody's so sure any longer.