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Rajasthan will be without their swing bowler Deepak Chahar for the Ranji Trophy Elite quarter-final clash against Hyderabad starting on Monday, because he’s down with jaundice. Chahar made the headlines last season when he took a record 8 for 21 on Ranji debut to skittle out the same opponents for 21.Rajasthan batsman Aakash Chopra was hopeful their strike bowler will be available for the next match, should the defending champions progress.”He is a good prospect and his presence would have given us psychological edge since he was the one who had floored them single-handedly in our first match last season,” Chopra told . “He is suffering from jaundice and that would leave him very weak. Hopefully he would be available for the next match.”Hyderabad qualified for the Elite knockouts after advancing from the Plate league, and Chopra said his team should guard against complacency especially since they’re playing on Hyderabad’s home turf.”We beat Hyderabad hands down when they came here last season but we would not underestimate them,” Chopra said. “They would be playing at their home ground and any team which qualifies for quarter-finals must be a good team. We won’t be complacent and we are thinking about one match at a time.”

As New Zealand regroup following their loss at the Gabba, they can take comfort from one important fact. The second Test is at Bellerive Oval, and nobody has taken more first-class wickets at the venue than their bowling coach, Damien Wright.In a 14-year first-class career, a decade of which was spent playing for Tasmania, Wright collected 127 victims in Hobart, at an average of 26.92. If anyone is qualified to preach on seam and swing bowling at the ground, it is Wright.When he took on the job in July, Wright was looking forward to helping the New Zealanders understand Australian conditions, from how to play on the different venues to technical knowledge like how to keep the Kookaburra ball swinging all day. His first outing against the Australians was far from unsuccessful: it was the batting and fielding that let New Zealand down in Brisbane more than the bowling.Now, they must adjust from the bouncier Gabba surface to Bellerive, where the ball tends to swing early, but life can become harder for bowlers as matches wear on. There are also breezes from the Derwent River to take into account, all of which the New Zealand fast men hope to learn about from Wright.”It will change, in Brisbane there was a lot more bounce and carry,” the fast bowler Tim Southee said on Wednesday. “We’ll reassess and talk about it after training today. Damien Wright who played a lot of cricket down here will have his knowledge to pass on to us and hopefully we can learn from that.”He’s been great for us. He has played a lot in Australia and has a lot of experience and has played a lot of cricket. I’ve only had a few weeks with Damien. Now he has seen me bowl a bit so he has some things that we’ll talk about today. He’s got an exciting knowledge of cricket. We’ll need that leading up to this Test.”New Zealand can also count history on their side as they aim to provide more fight than in Brisbane. They are the only side ever to deny Australia victory in Bellerive Oval Test matches – and they’ve done it twice. Rain played a part in both those draws, in 1997-98 and 2001-02, but it’s a decent record all the same.”By all accounts it’s more like a New Zealand wicket,” Southee said of Bellerive. It is certainly more so than the Gabba. Hobart is further south than Wellington and has a similar annual rainfall to Christchurch. It could hardly be a more familiar climate for the New Zealanders.But in order to capitalise on that, they will need to grab their opportunities. New Zealand spilled four catches in Brisbane, all behind the wicket and all chances that should have been taken. The culprits were the wicketkeeper Reece Young and slip catchers Ross Taylor, Brendon McCullum and Jesse Ryder. Doug Bracewell also gave Michael Clarke a life by bowling him off a no-ball.”No one means to drop catches but everyone drops catches at some point,” Southee said. “We didn’t have lot of luck with the ball. Obviously Dougie bowling Michael Clarke was a massive turning point. I’m sure he’s working on that. Chris Martin bowled well and Doug bowled extremely well in periods. It was just very unlucky with those chances that went down.”But we have a good fielding outfit and we were disappointed to let our standards slip. The guys set very high standards in the field. When things aren’t going so well it’s something we rely on to get us going. We’ve put in some hard work since Brisbane and I’m sure there’ll be a lot of catching [practice] today and tomorrow.”All the bowlers can do is keep creating the chances.

Match facts

Thursday, December 8
Start time 1430 (0900 GMT)Will Darren Sammy be celebrating after the game on Thursday?•AFP

Big Picture

Darren Sammy’s reactions at the end of each game on this tour have been fascinating to watch. Resignation after the hammering in the Eden Garden’s Test, unabashed school-boy glee following the nerve-jangling draw in Mumbai, and agony after being denied by Umesh Yadav and Varun Aaron in Cuttack. The best of the lot came in Ahmedabad, though, when Sammy lasered down the stumps from mid-on to run out Rohit Sharma and all but confirm West Indies’ first win on tour. He leapt, yelled, pumped his fists and could barely control the adrenaline rush as he charged towards his team-mates. Sammy will be determined to recreate that feeling with the series still up for grabs.West Indies have played better cricket than the hosts in the ODI series, but that isn’t saying much. Their top order has been asked to bat in all three games – a rare streak of extended generosity on the flat decks of the subcontinent – but has floundered against India’s young seamers, before steadily losing momentum against spin in the middle overs. They haven’t been as disadvantaged by the dew as expected in any of the matches, yet have allowed the action to drift along after making major incisions with the new ball. The catching has been poor, the captaincy worse, and on both counts Sammy has been the biggest culprit.The visitors’ lapses mean India need only one win to take the series, but concerns abound for the home side ahead of the Indore ODI. The 2-1 scoreline doesn’t quite convey how much they have been stretched. West Indies had no business letting India’s last pair sneak home in the opening ODI, and have toyed with the hosts’ pop-gun attack in the slog overs in both games since. Bowling meltdowns in the death have become so routine that India don’t panic when it happens anymore (think of the World Cup final). The bigger worry is the prolonged top order funk, and more specifically the lack of runs from Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir. They have two games to hit upon some form ahead of far sterner tests in Australia. Will they shake off the rust in Indore?

Form guide

India LWWWW (Most recent first)
West Indies WLLLW

In the spotlight

His fans have been clamouring for this day for months on end, often disregarding form, and at times even ignoring his injury status. Irfan Pathan is back in the mix, but crucially, he is in form and fitter than he has been at any stage since he last played for India. His resurgence has come the hard way, with wickets by the bunch in the Ranji season, and the banana swing that made him such a rage in 2003-4 has also shown promising signs of reappearance. Can he transfer the rhythm and skill to the white ball?At Motera, Sunil Narine walked up to the cauldron like he belonged and performed without a fuss. The much-feared topspinner made an early appearance, but he got his wickets with an offbreak and a carom ball. If the ball stays dry in Indore, expect him to parade a few more of his unique variations.

Pitch and conditions

The Motera game featured strange crop patterns on the outfield as the groundsmen went a touch overboard with their creativity. There will, however, be no such gimmickry at the Holkar Stadium where heavy seasonal dew in the evenings has dissuaded chief curator Samandar Singh Chouhan and his team from removing any grass from the outfield. According to , Chouhan is betting big on an anti-dew chemical that has been routinely sprayed on the outfield in the lead-up to the game. Expect India to field again if they win the toss, unless Sehwag believes batting in the afternoon will offer a better chance to regain some form.

Team news

West Indies’ best batsman on the tour, Darren Bravo, is out with a hamstring injury. The replacement is most likely to be Adrian Barath, though Kieran Powell deserves a chance after batting impressively in the Tests.West Indies (possible): 1 Lendl Simmons, 2 Adrian Barath / Kieran Powell, 3 Marlon Samuels, 4 Danza Hyatt, 5 Kieron Pollard, 6 Denesh Ramdin (wk), 7 Darren Sammy (capt), 8 Andre Russell, 9 Ravi Rampaul, 10 Kemar Roach, 11 Sunil NarineUmesh Yadav is flying to Australia early, which means Varun Aaron has the chance to return to the XI. It will be a tricky call for Sehwag to make: Irfan Pathan and Vinay Kumar will both expect to play since they are the more experienced seamers in the ODI side. But neither is going to Australia for the Tests; Abhimanyu Mithun and Aaron, who are likely to tussle for the third seamer’s spot in Indore, are.India (possible): 1 Parthiv Patel (wk), 2 Virender Sehwag (capt), 3 Gautam Gambhir, 4 Virat Kohli, 5 Rohit Sharma, 6 Suresh Raina, 7 Ravindra Jadeja, 8 Irfan Pathan, 9 R Ashwin, 10 R Vinay Kumar, 11 Varun Aaron / Abhimanyu Mithun

Stats and trivia

• Rohit Sharma has amassed 514 runs against West Indies in 2011 – already the highest by any batsman against them in a calendar year
• This will be the first day-night international ever played at the Holkar Stadium. The venue has hosted two ODIs prior to this one, with India beating England in both.
  

  Quotes

  “It’s difficult to say I am satisfied when you are losing. But we have shown a lot of spirit and created opportunities to win.”

  “It feels great to be leading the Indian attack. The new ball suits me very well because I am more a swing bowler.”

ScorecardAlister McDermott formed part of an impressively even Queensland attack•Getty Images

Queensland’s bowlers defended a mediocre total grandly to shut out New South Wales and maintain the Bulls’ unbeaten start to the summer in the domestic limited overs match in Brisbane.The Blues would have considered themselves well placed when the hosts were bowled out for 221, the left-arm quick Mitchell Starc claiming 5-39 with a combination of speed, swing and bounce.But the Bulls maintained the fine balance between flair and determination that has hallmarked the team under the coaching of Darren Lehmann this season when they defended the target.The left-arm spinner Brad Ipson shared the new ball with Alister McDermott and claimed the first wicket when Daniel Smith drove too hastily. McDermott followed up with the wicket of Tim Cruickshank, bowled while attempting to pull, and the rest faded away.Some late hitting by Starc allowed him to claim the match award, but the smiles were all Queensland’s.