West Indies eves see no surprises from Sri Lanka

Bridgetown (Barbados), April 24 (IANS/CMC) West Indies women's cricket team is expecting no major surprises from Sri Lanka when the two sides meet in an eight-match limited overs series starting here Wednesday.

Head coach Sherwin Campbell said the West Indies were familiar with the Sri Lankans having played them before and were prepared for the challenge of the three One-Day Internationals and five Twenty20s.

"We played against Sri Lanka a few times before. So, we know what to expect. We lost to them in Sri Lanka a few years ago, but we beat them in the (2013) World Cup qualifiers so we know what to expect," Campbell said.

"Their team is built around spin bowling, so we know what we will come up against. They are not strong (physically) as our players, but they are talented and we know we can beat them."

Campbell said his charges were confident of a positive result, especially after excelling recently against higher-ranked sides like India in similar limited overs series earlier this year.

The West Indies beat the Indians 2-1 in a three-match one-day series before stealing 3-2 victory in the subsequent T20 contest.

He also pointed out that the Windies would be looking to improve on their international team ranking while several players would be also looking to enhance their international ranking.

The West Indies are ranked fifth in ODIs and fourth in T20Is.

"The team has been working extremely hard on their batting skills as we believe that our bowling and fielding levels have been consistently high," said Campbell.

"We enjoyed a really good series against India and with Sri Lanka being ranked lower than them, we need to do well in this series in order to raise our ICC rankings."

He added: "All of the players have been working toward that objective and, of course, Stefanie (Taylor) will want to maintain her World ranking as an all-rounder and a batter, and Deandra Dottin has also been moving up the rankings."

Taylor, the ICC Women's Cricketer of the Year for 2011, currently tops the batting table with a 63-rating points lead over India's Mithali Raj and currently heads the all-rounders rankings with an 85-point lead over Australia's Lisa Sthalekar.

Top order batsman Deandra Dottin is ranked seventh. The Windies Women concluded a 10-day camp last weekend in preparation for the upcoming series.

--IANS/CMC

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