The debate over pitch conditions in IPL 2025 continues to stir controversy after Zaheer Khan, mentor of Lucknow Super Giants, expressed concerns over the surface used in their home game against Punjab Kings on Tuesday. Lucknow suffered their second defeat of the season, losing by eight wickets, with Zaheer partly attributing the loss to the pitch curator. LSG may have been expecting a more spin-friendly surface, but pacers dominated the match. Arshdeep Singh claimed three wickets, while Lockie Ferguson and Marco Jansen picked up one each, restricting Lucknow to 171/7 in their allotted 20 overs.
In response, Lucknow’s bowlers struggled to make an impact, with mystery spinner Digvesh Singh Rathi being the only wicket-taker, claiming both of Punjab’s fallen wickets. Punjab comfortably chased the target in just 16.2 overs, securing victory with 22 balls to spare. Zaheer appeared disappointed with the nature of the pitch, especially with the ongoing discussions surrounding home advantage in the IPL. The former Indian pacer even speculated about the curator’s possible bias.
“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,” Zaheer said during the press conference.
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