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The pitch at Lucknow's Ekana stadium was expected to be slow but it turned out to be a googly for home team Lucknow Super Giants (LSG). The pitch prepared was batting friendly and PBKS registered a dominating eight-wicket win to stun the Rishabh Pant-led side. After the defeat, captain Pant had his reservations about the pitch. However, LSG mentor Zaheer Khan did not mince any words as he came down heavily on Lucknow pitch curator. The legendary went on to say that LSG felt the pitch was prepared by Punjab curator.
"What was a little disappointing for me here, considering it's a home game..." Zaheer told the reporters in the post-match press conference. "In IPL, you've seen how teams have looked at taking a little bit of home advantage, you know, so yeah, from that point of view, you've seen the curator is not really thinking that it's a home game, you know. I think maybe it looked like, you know, it was Punjab curator out here.
"That's something which we'll figure out. It's a new setup for me also here. But I hope that this is the first and the last game when it comes to that, because you are disappointing the Lucknow fans as well. They've come up with so much expectations of winning the first home game here.
"As a team, we are confident, you know, we accept that we've lost the game, and we're going to do whatever it takes to make that impact in the home leg. We still have six more games to go here."
No excuse from Zaheer but blames curators
Zaheer further said that he is not looking to use it as excuse. Zaheer said that he believed the curator who said that it will favour the bowlers.
"See, we will go by what the curator says, no?," Zaheer said. "Not looking at it as an excuse. We have seen last season also, it's not that batters haven't had issues here and bowers haven't been on a roll. Those things happen in cricket. But in terms of support for the home team, everyone must be aware that this is our team that's playing in Lucknow and what we can do to ensure a victory. Everyone's contribution is necessary. That said, we will find a way to win."
Zaheer is not the first to complain about the pitch prepared for home games. Kolkata Knight Riders captain Ajinkya Rahane was the first after defeat in the opening game. Last week, Chennai Super Kings (CSK) head coach Stephen Fleming blamed pitch preparations for their first home defeat to Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) after 17 years.
LSG's next match is against Mumbai Indians (MI) at home on April 4. It will be interesting to see if the nature of the pitch changes.
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