Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) faced a tough loss, getting beaten by eight wickets by the Punjab Kings in their first home game of the IPL 2025 season at the Ekana Cricket Stadium on Tuesday. After the match, LSG’s mentor, Zaheer Khan, shared his thoughts during the post-match press conference. He wasn’t too happy about the pitch that the team had to play on, especially since it was their first game in front of their home crowd.
Zaheer mentioned, “It was a bit disappointing for me since it was a home game. In the IPL, we usually see teams trying to take advantage of playing at home. But it felt like the pitch didn’t really support that idea. I don’t know, it seemed almost like it was set up by Punjab’s team rather than ours,” he joked.
During the match, the Kings had the upper hand from the start. LSG struggled right off the bat, losing three wickets in the PowerPlay, which made it hard for them to regain control. On the flip side, the Punjab Kings had a solid showing, with players like Prabhsimran Singh and Shreyas Iyer scoring fifties, making it look pretty easy to chase down the target.
Zaheer holds out hope that this won’t be the standard for their home games. “This setup is all new for me, but I really wish this is the first and last time we have to deal with something like this, especially because it’s disappointing for the fans in Lucknow. They came in with high hopes to see us win our first game here,” he said.
As for the remaining matches, Zaheer assured everyone that the team is ready to step up their game to meet their fans’ expectations. “As a team, we’re feeling confident. We know we messed up in this match, but we’re ready to do whatever it takes to make a proper impact in the rest of our home games. We’ve still got six more matches to go, and this team has shown we have the right mentality for the IPL,” he added.
