CRICKET/World Cup: West Indies captain Carl Hooper thinks his team's World Cup wash-out against Bangladesh could prove a blessing in disguise, despite costing them two valuable points.

West Indies seemed to be coasting to victory after piling up 244-9, and then reducing Bangladesh to 32-2 when rain forced the match in Benoni, South Africa, to be abandoned, leaving the situation in Group B finely balanced.

Assuming no further wash-outs or huge upsets by minnow sides, South Africa will be eliminated unless they win their last three games. If the hosts achieve that feat, West Indies will need to win their next three matches against Canada, Sri Lanka and Kenya to make the Super Sixes.

"While we're disappointed we didn't get the four points, maybe it's not a bad thing," Hooper told a news conference. "It's no more difficult for us than before, the important game for us is the game against Sri Lanka and maybe this is a blessing in disguise.

"Obviously we wanted the four points, but we want to be in the sort of frame of mind when we play Sri Lanka to know that it's a must-win situation."

The players were sent scurrying from the field after the heavens opened during the ninth over of the Bangladesh innings, and they never returned.

"We've been in situations before where the rain has saved West Indies and may be today it saved Bangladesh," Hooper said.

"There's nothing we could do about it, it was out of our control and we've just got to look forward to the next game now."

Despite being in control of the match after being sent into bat on a difficult Willowmoore pitch, Hooper said he was still disappointed with his team's performance.

"We should have got more runs, probably 275, I think; 244 was only par," he said. "We also dropped some catches and that's a worry. If we're going to go all the way and win the World Cup, we have to play against much tougher opposition than today, and we'll have to take our chances."

Hooper said the most positive thing to come out of yesterday's match was a brilliant display by middle-order batsman Ricardo Powell, who clubbed four sixes to bring up his half century off just 30 balls, the fastest 50 of the tournament.

"Ricardo Powell is probably one of the best strikers of the ball in modern cricket," Hooper said.

There was genuine relief on the faces of the Bangladesh players when the match was abandoned.

"We lost our last two matches, so we're very happy at the moment," said captain Khaled Mashud.

Bangladesh upset Pakistan at the 1999 World Cup, but have not won a game since. They had hoped to end their drought when they were drawn to play Canada in their first match of the 2003 tournament, only to suffer an embarrassing 60-run defeat.

That was followed by a 10-wicket loss to Sri Lanka, and it seemed another heavy defeat was on the cards against West Indies when the weather intervened.

"We were trying to win, we thought we had nothing to lose," Mashud said. "We lost our first two matches so we wanted to do well in this match."

With rain forecast for the afternoon, it was no surprise that Mashud opted to make West Indies bat first, but he said that was not a plan to delay the match until the rain came.

"We thought it was very good conditions for the bowlers so that's why I decided to bowl first," he explained. "In the rest of the matches, we'll just try our best and give 100 per cent."

• TODAY: ICC WORLD CUP - Pool A: England v Namibia (in Port Elizabeth), Zimbabwe v India (in Harare). Pool B: Sri Lanka v Canada (in Paarl).