THE West Indies women's power hitting will be an asset to the team, according to assistant coach Ryan Austin, when the regional team faces Bangladesh in their third match of the International Cricket Council T20 Women's World Cup in the United Arab Emirates on October 10 from 10 am, Trinidad and Tobago time. West Indies have had a mixed start to the tournament in Group B, losing to South Africa by ten wickets in their opener on October 4, but bouncing back to defeat Scotland by six wickets two days later. The regional women are third in Group B with two preliminary matches remaining, behind South Africa and England. Only the top two teams in each group will progress to the semifinals. Ten teams have been separated into two groups. West Indies are equipped with a few batters who can hit boundaries regularly and because of the nature of the wickets, Austin said a little muscle will be a plus. "We are banking on our power as well," Austin said in a pre-match media conference. "If you look at the wickets they are playing pretty slow at the moment. South Africa today (October 9) actually had a good total on the wicket and if you watch how they batted, they actually used their feet a lot to the spin. We are looking to go into the game with that sort of mindset with respect to their spin-bowling attack as well." Windies captain Hayley Matthews, Deandra Dottin, Qiana Joseph and Chinelle Henry have the ability to score quickly. Matthews, one of the best players in women's cricket, has made a quiet start to the tournament, scoring just ten and eight in her two innings. Austin knows she will deliver soon. "Hayley has not scored any runs as yet, so I am pretty sure she is hungry, so Bangladesh and England better watch out, because she is coming." Austin said when you have senior players, the coaching staff will trust them to make decisions on their own. "When you have a Hayley Matthews, a Deandra Dottin and a Stafanie Taylor in your side, it becomes pretty easy, because these girls have a lot of experience. They are already having a lot of conversations among themselves...I am sure they are confident." Austin said a convincing win against Bangladesh will help their chances of advancing to the knockout phase. "If you look how our group is set up, net run rate is really going to be a big factor later down...especially in the next game against Bangladesh." It will be beneficial if West Indies bowl first and try to "lick off" the total as fast as possible, Austin said. West Indies are not favourites like India, Australia or England, but Austin said they are not at the tournament to make up numbers. "I know how important it is for these girls to win the tournament. It will do a lot for cricket on the whole back home, where we always want to obviously encourage the younger girls coming up to want to play cricket and want to represent West Indies. It will be a big deal for a lot of the girls." The post Windies Women aim to muscle past Bangladesh appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday. Source: https://newsday.co.tt/2024/10/10/windie ... angladesh/