It’s been more than seven months since India thrashed South Africa in three days, but Green Park curator Shiv Kumar remembers the Test match as if it had ended yesterday.

“There was a lot of criticism about the pitch. There was just one ball that misbehaved in that match. It was the ball on which Rahul Dravid was dismissed — it got big on him after pitching on length,” Kumar launches into a long explanation at first mention of the game. “It was just this ball that was bad in the entire match. And, by the way, India didn’t win the match, South Africa lost it.”

After the defeat, the South Africans had raised concerns over the state of the pitch, and coach Mickey Arthur had called it the most under-prepared track in the world. The ICC had also got involved, asking the BCCI to explain its actions. No action was taken but the inquisition, as far as Kumar is concerned, is still going on.

“It’s amazing how the media got after me. Everybody forgot that it was a last-wicket partnership between Ishant Sharma and Sreesanth that really turned the match in India’s favour. If those two could stick around and put on 50 runs for the last wicket, you don’t need to guess which set of batsmen failed,” Kumar says.

In hindsight, he says he would’ve been happier if South Africa had won, because it would’ve saved him all the trouble, which was compounded by the fact that stand-in skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni gave him a Rs-10,000 reward after India’s victory.

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