After the heroic last-ball, last-wicket, last-session draw New Zealand squeezed out in Kanpur the year before, Rahul Dravid handed curator Shiv Kumar a cheque of Rs 35,000. The coach was not exactly
pleased with the surface Kumar had put together—“the turn was low and slow, did not wear and tear,” he would complain—but found joy in the crowd getting to watch a game that lasted a full five days. “It had everything a Test match could offer, quality cricket as well as drama. The match was alive till the final ball, which is a victory for Test cricket.”