Gully Point

RP Singh pushed for Bhuvneshwar Kumar's recall while Agarkar was chairman. He got blocked. Agarkar leaves, Ojha takes interim charge and the same name walks straight into the T20I squad.

"No draw tomorrow," says Ryan Rickelton. But his own assessment of the pitch gives Australia a pretty clear survival plan. The surface is slow. The ball is getting softer and barely carrying to the keeper. Australia could bat through the final day without seriously chasing 290. Rickelton expects a result, but he also admits a draw is possible. South Africa need ten wickets on a pitch where even the edges might not carry. Australia don't have to chase 290 to deny South Africa the series. Batting through the final day would be enough.

Dinesh Karthik has questioned why Sanju Samson is always the one making way for Vaibhav Sooryavanshi. "Every time there is anything related to Vaibhav, it is always Sanju," he said on Cricbuzz. Vaibhav scored 45 off 19 as an opener, then lost his place when Ishan Kishan returned. Abhishek Sharma has played almost every match. Karthik wants Abhishek rested for Hamilton, with Samson and Vaibhav opening. Abhishek deserves his place, but surely he can sit out one match with the series already won, without Sanju being sacrificed again.

Pat Cummins needed 372 balls to get his first wicket. Nathan Lyon was finding sharp turn, and Starc had the second new ball. Yet Rickelton and Mulder survived 318 balls together, adding 154 runs. Then South Africa gave Australia the opening themselves. Rickelton was run out for 101 after a mix-up. Coetzee later went the same way. Mulder still made 115 and pushed the lead to 287. Australia worked hard for wickets all day. South Africa gave away two they could not afford to lose.

Yuvraj Singh says leaving Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi out of regular ODI opportunities is "not doing justice to our talent." He also admitted, "it is hard to make a spot for them." Kishan is already Shreyas Iyer's deputy for the last two ODIs in New Zealand. Sooryavanshi has had to sit out T20Is despite good performances. Every one of them has a case. For Abhishek or Sooryavanshi to get in, someone already in the squad has to go.

Glenn Phillips made 67 runs in five innings for Gujarat Titans last season and was dropped. Tonight he hit 107 off 49 balls at Eden Park, took New Zealand to 259 and beat India by 87 runs. His take on the IPL afterwards, "if you don't go out there and set the world on fire, there's always another person waiting in line." He also credited Gujarat's "unbelievable facilities" and "great coaches" while he sat out. Gujarat benched him and he kept learning. India's bowlers paid for it.

Kumar Sangakkara alleges Ryanair gate staff at Dublin Airport told him and his family that "people like you with your kind of passports should expect this treatment." He says they were also warned that if they argued, they would be treated as a threat to other passengers and not boarded. When a user accused him of wanting preferential treatment, Sangakkara replied that this is "not treating everyone exactly the same. It is racist." If his account is accurate, Ryanair has some explaining to do.

Jimmy Anderson walked into a meeting expecting to talk about Lancashire's poor season. A couple of minutes in, he realised the club wanted to move forward without him. He's 44, he captained the side and he took 50 Championship wickets at 17.68. The club's rebuild plan doesn't include him. Stuart Broad called the handling disrespectful and said it "shows a lack of leadership at that club." England told him his international time was up. Lancashire have now done the same. "It'd be nice, at some point, if someone will let me retire," Anderson said.

India's second-biggest T20I defeat came in a dead rubber, with the series already won 3-0. New Zealand posted 259, then held India to 172/9. That's an 87-run margin against a side that hadn't beaten them all series. Nitish Kumar Reddy's over went for 32, four of them sixes. It's India's second-worst T20I over ever, level with Stuart Binny's 32 against West Indies in 2016. Call it a dead rubber if you like. The reigning world champions still conceded 259 and lost by 87.

Rohit Sharma is reportedly set to replace Hardik Pandya as Mumbai Indians captain for IPL 2027. According to The Indian Express, Rohit first suggested Tilak Varma's name. The franchise asked him to take the job himself, and he has agreed. MI had wanted the change in the middle of 2026. They kept Hardik in charge for a season that ended with 10 defeats in 14 matches and ninth place. If Hardik isn't traded, he has reportedly agreed to play under Rohit. MI replaced Rohit as captain in 2024. Now they're reportedly going back to him.

India have conceded 200-plus in T20Is 11 times this year. No team has ever done that in a single calendar year. Tonight Phillips and Bracewell added 115 in under seven overs against them. These are the same T20 World Cup champions. World champions, and the most-hit bowling attack in a calendar year. The trophy is covering for a lot.

88 runs in six overs. Pakistan chased it down in just 3.5. Shashank Singh smashed 40 off 11 balls, including five sixes, to give India what looked like a serious total in a six-over contest. Pakistan made it look ordinary. India's bowlers had 88 runs to defend and couldn't even drag the game into the fifth over. Shashank's innings deserved a much better fight than that.

India are already 3-0 up, but Shreyas Iyer still isn't giving Vaibhav Sooryavanshi another game. Sooryavanshi was part of a record 118-run opening stand in the powerplay. One match later, he's back on the bench as Ishan Kishan returns. "Not going to leave no stone unturned," says Iyer. India want 5-0, fair enough. But dropping a youngster straight after a record-breaking opening stand is a strange way to reward performance. At 3-0, surely India can afford to back him for one more game.

Starc's bouncer smashed into Marques Ackerman's helmet. Travis Head immediately went over and called for medical assistance. Marnus Labuschagne had a very different reaction. "See you buddy. Heady, what are you doing mate? He's off." A batter had just taken a brutal blow to the helmet and Marnus was questioning why his teammate was checking on him. Australia love their aggressive cricket, but there's a difference between claiming a wicket and showing basic concern for a batter's safety. Head did what any cricketer should do in that situation. Marnus could have kept his mouth shut.

Four IPL franchises have reportedly approached Gambhir for 2028, KKR and Rajasthan Royals among them. KKR won the 2024 title with him as mentor, ending a 10-year wait. Since he left, they've finished 7th and 8th. LSG made the playoffs in both of his seasons. Since then, 7th, 7th and 10th. Two franchises, five seasons since he left, no playoffs. KKR reportedly want him back. Hard to blame them after two seasons without playoffs.

Prasidh Krishna is out of all five ODIs in New Zealand with a left hamstring injury. The BCCI says he "will need additional time to build up the workload required to be ready for matches." What it has lined up is one four-day game for India A before the Test series starts on November 19. Nitish Kumar Reddy plays the first ODI on November 4, then joins the same India A game from November 7. One four-day game is a short runway for someone who still needs "additional time" to build up his workload. If it holds, the BCCI called it right.

200 T20I wickets. Rashid Khan is the first bowler in history to reach that mark. He got there against Zimbabwe, but reducing this milestone to the opposition would be ridiculous. Nearly a decade of batters trying to read his googly, across international cricket and T20 leagues worldwide. They know what's coming. They still struggle to pick it. Rashid has made wrist-spin one of the most feared weapons in T20 cricket. And after 200 wickets, there's still no sign he's getting easier to face.

A source tells PTI that Hardik Pandya will stay at Mumbai Indians and give "110-120 percent" even without the captaincy. The trade talk was all about where Hardik goes. MI's own dilemma is reportedly Rohit Sharma or Tilak Varma as captain. If the source is right, Hardik stays and the captaincy is what changes.

Bavuma batted almost three hours, then drove at the eighth-last ball of the day with five minutes to survive. Markram, Bedingham and Ackerman all gone to loose strokes before him. South Africa lost their top four chasing shots they didn't need. Harmer called it pressure. The scoreboard calls it four batters who forgot the situation was already won by patience.

Nathan Lyon has dismissed Temba Bavuma seven times and twice in this Test alone. The second came five minutes before stumps on Day 3. Bavuma tried to swat Lyon to the leg side, missed and was bowled between bat and pad after 115 balls of resistance on 35. He was the third South Africa batter out softly, after Markram pushed one straight to mid-off and Bedingham top-edged a pull. South Africa finished on 140-4, just 40 ahead and the pitch is expected to be harder to bat on when Australia bat again.