‘Looked like it was Punjab curator out here’
After Lucknow Super Giants’ (LSG) eight-wicket defeat to the Punjab Kings at home, LSG mentor Zaheer Khan slammed the pitch curator at Lucknow’s Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium for the 22-yard strip. Batting first, the hosts LSG managed to score 171 runs which Punjab chased down with eight wickets in hand and 22 balls to spare. LSG captain Rishabh Pant admitted at the post-match presentation that they were expecting the pitch to be slower. But team mentor Zaheer went a step further with his comments.
“What was a little disappointing for me here. Considering it’s a home game and in IPL you’ve seen how teams have looked at taking a little bit of home advantage, from that point of view you’ve seen the curator is not really thinking that it’s a home game. I think maybe it looked like, you know, it was Punjab curator out here,” LSG’s Zaheer said at the press conference.
“So that’s something which we will figure. It’s a new set-up also for me, 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. We accept that we’ve lost the game, and we have got to do whatever it takes to make that impact in the home leg. We still have six more games to go here, and this team has shown in the season so far, whatever little cricket is played, that we have the right outlook and the mindset to look at the IPL. What you can expect is innovation, out-of-the-box thinking, the fight, the hunger, and that sums us up as a team.”
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Former India pace spearhead Zaheer then demanded more support for the home team. But he did admit that the LSG think tank had misread the pitch in what was their first home game of IPL 2025. “That’s what we are saying. We will go according to what the curator tells us. We are not using this as an excuse. We have seen during the last season that it’s not like batters don’t have to struggle here at times. All these things go on in cricket. But the way the home team should get support, everyone needs to know this is our home team that is playing in Lucknow and what can we do to help them win? Everyone’s contribution is important. We will find a way anyway to win matches…” Zaheer said.
