“It looked like Punjab curator prepared the pitch” - LSG mentor Zaheer Khan slams Lucknow pitch curator

Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) mentor Zaheer Khan has slammed the pitch curator at the Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow after his team suffered a poor eight-wicket loss to Punjab Kings (PBKS) on Tuesday, April 1.

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Earlier, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK) also expressed their voices against their home pitches. Interestingly, Zaheer stated that the pitch didn’t assist the home team; rather, it assisted visitors.

"Disappointed, not really thinking that it's a home game. What was a little disappointing for me here, considering it's a home game. 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," Zaheer Khan stated in the post-match press conference. 

With six more home games left in Lucknow, Zaheer Khan asserted that his team would be aiming to bounce back before it gets too late and register their first win of the season at their home.

"That's something which we'll figure out. It's a new setup for me 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 many 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," he added.

After losing the toss, LSG was tasked to bat first. Despite losing three early wickets, they went on to post 171/7 in 20 overs, thanks to Nicholas Pooran, Ayush Badoni, and Abdul Samad’s knocks in the middle and death overs. In response, PBKS took 16.2 overs to finish off the game with eight wickets in hand.

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