LSG mentor Zaheer Khan slams Lucknow pitch following defeat

Lucknow, April 2: Two losses in three games have hit Lucknow Super Giants hard, and team mentor Zaheer Khan did not hold back in his criticism of the home-ground pitch following the heavy defeat to Punjab Kings, remarking, it looked like the PBKS “curator out here”.
Chasing 172 on a track that offered grip and variable bounce, PBKS rode on opener Prabhsimran Singh’s 34-ball 69 to outplay the home side by eight wickets as LSG find themselves saddled at the No.6 spot with just one victory in three games and a net run rate in the negative.“What was a little disappointing for me here, considering it’s a home game, and you know, in IPL you’ve seen how teams have looked at taking a little bit of home advantage, you know,” said the former India pacer in the post-match press interaction.“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.” The former pacer, who was the global head of cricket development at Mumbai Indians before joining LSG, added that all this deprives the home team fans of watching their side dominating the proceedings.“So, that’s (pitch) something which we’ll figure out. It’s a new setup also 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 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,” he added.
Zaheer also said he will continue giving precedence to a “process-oriented setup” than a result-oriented one despite a big loss at home.“This is the third game of the season, you know, so we’ve been very vocal about how the team is looking at this season. So, that’s something which is very important for us as a group. It’s a very process-oriented setup, not so much result-oriented.
“So, we’re going to definitely focus on the positives. Yes, there is some work to be done, which will happen in the due course,” said the former India pacer.This was the first home game for LSG and a loss did come as a dampener to the fans but Zaheer said his main focus was on creating a “parameter” for the side to follow.“See, that’s the nature of IPL, isn’t it? You will be on the go, you’ll be playing home games, away games. It was the first home game for us for this season, so yes, there were a lot of expectations and hopes.” (PTI)