'Was A Shocker Of A Wicket': Hardik Pandya Criticises Lucknow Pitch Post Win In 2nd T20I

Ekana’s wicket has come under the scanner as Indian batters struggled a lot while chasing a small target of 100. As a result, NZ batters also got restricted to just 99 runs. 

Indian batters during the second T20I against New Zealand.

Source : PTI

The Indian team levelled the three-match series by winning the second T20I by 6 wickets against New Zealand at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow.  Ekana’s wicket has come under the scanner as Indian batters struggled a lot while chasing a small target of 100. As a result, NZ batters also got restricted to just 99 runs. 

.@surya_14kumar hits the winning runs as #TeamIndia secure a 6-wicket win in Lucknow & level the #INDvNZ T20I series 1️⃣-1️⃣

Scorecard ▶️ https://t.co/p7C0QbPSJs#INDvNZ | @mastercardindia pic.twitter.com/onXTBVc2Wu

— BCCI (@BCCI) January 29, 2023

Team India skipper Hardik Pandya spoke about the wicket in the post-match presentation and said, "To be honest, this was a shocker of a wicket. Two games the kind of wickets we have played on. I don't mind difficult wickets. I am all up for that, but these two wickets are not made for T20. Somewhere down the line the curators or the stadium whichever we are going to play in T20, they should make sure they prepare the pitches earlier, rather than having a couple of games there”.

"I always believed that we'll be able to finish the game, but it went quite late. All these games are important. You don't need to panic because it was about rotating the strike rather than taking the pressure. That's exactly what we did. Rather than taking risks, we followed our basics and kind of kept things simple," he added.

Squads:

India: Shubman Gill, Ishan Kishan(w), Rahul Tripathi, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya(c), Deepak Hooda, Washington Sundar, Shivam Mavi, Arshdeep Singh, Umran Malik, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Jitesh Sharma, Mukesh Kumar, Prithvi Shaw

New Zealand: Finn Allen, Devon Conway(w), Mark Chapman, Glenn Phillips, Daryl Mitchell, Michael Bracewell, Mitchell Santner(c), Lockie Ferguson, Ish Sodhi, Blair Tickner, Jacob Duffy, Michael Rippon, Dane Cleaver, Henry Shipley, Ben Lister