Connell, who, like Garner of the fearsome Calypso Kings who ruled the sport in the 1970s and '80s, is from Barbados, tall, dangerously quick and not scared to bowl bouncers, made her international one day debut in Tuesday's nail-biting loss to the Australians.

The home team won the game by three wickets  - but with just three balls remaining - on the back of impressive batting by skipper Meg Lanning (95), Nicole  Bolton (59) and Ellyse Perry (53).  While Connell finished wicketless her aggression gave the normally unflappable Lanning some headaches.

"She'd be close to the tallest player any of us have played against and she got some pretty good bounce and pace off the wicket," said Perry of Connell. "It certainly made it pretty exciting to have someone like her running in like that.

"She gets natural bounce but when she drops it a bit shorter it gets up there.  I think Meg is wearing a few bruises courtesy of her . . . we haven't seen much of Shamilia but she has potential."

Vice-captain Alex Blackwell said that after the Australians sealed top spot on the ICC Women's Championships it was crucial they appreciated the value of partnerships. While they seemed to be steaming towards victory on Tuesday a middle order collapse, with four wickets falling for 15 runs, tested the team's mettle.

"Chasing down their total became quite difficult," said Blackwell. "We were cruising with two, 100-run partnerships. It proved partnerships are the key and we need to value them because without them we would never have chased down their 240.

"The West Indies are a very unpredictable team. We've noticed they don't always use the same bowling formula, we saw  [Stafanie] Taylor bowl for the first time on Tuesday so they have a lot of variety - a lot of spinners and Connell has been a big addition to their side.

"She's as fast as 'Pez' [Perry] at about 115-120 km/h so she bowls with great pace."

Blackwell said despite the scare the Australians were playing some of their best cricket in recent seasons.