The tournament noticed New Zealand arrange to attain simply 99 for 8 in 20 overs, whilst India controlled to achieve the objective with only a ball to spare. In an extraordinary instance in T20 cricket, now not a unmarried six used to be hit all the way through the tournament, which witnessed 30 out of 40 overs of spin on a monitor the place the ball grew to become sq..
“To be honest, this was a shocker of a wicket,” Hardik stated on the post-match presentation.
“We hosted too many tournaments at this stadium this season. We staged the (league stage of the) Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, then the Women’s Inter-Zonals, then the India versus South Africa ODI (on October 6 last year). This isn’t ‘t an excuse, but this wicket has never been used so much before. Since there were a few issues with the (Green Park) stadium in Kanpur, we had to host a lot of games here. In a regular center which has the experience of staging matches, this kind of ‘rush of matches’ can be managed. However, here, we didn’t have the experience for that,” Ankit Chatterjeethe CEO of UPCA advised TOI from Lucknow.
“The (cold) weather made things difficult for us, as the wicket takes longer to recover after a game in this climate. Having said that, a mistake has been made by our curator (Surendra Kumar, who has been sacked). There’s no running away from that. We can’t pass the buck. The pitch wasn’t up to the mark,” he stated.
Defending the venue, Chatterjee stated, “The previous international games here have been all high-scoring. At that time, there wasn’t so much ‘load’ on the wicket, so we had time to prepare the track for an international game. ”
The earlier global tournament in Lucknow, an ODI between India and South Africa, noticed the Proteas ranking 249 for 4 in 40 overs, in respond to which India made 240 for 8. In the remaining T20I at this venue, on February 24, 2022, India scored 199 for two in 20 overs, in respond to which Sri Lanka made 137-6.
The UPCA officers at the moment are briefly taking a look to briefly make path correction because the Ekana Stadium is the house venue of the Lucknow Super Giants in IPL-2023. This is the primary time that LSG shall be taking part in at house.
“As per the directions of Rajiv Shuklaji (BCCI vice-president) we’ve to take all the corrective measures in the next month or so, because we know that something like this cannot happen in the IPL. So, we’re getting two top-grade BCCI curators, who have the experience of preparing international venues. One will be the outfield specialist, while the other will be the pitch specialist,” he stated.
BCCI’s leader curator Ashish Bhowmick refused to remark, mentioning that his “BCCI contract does not allow him to speak to the media.”