Lucknow Super Giants head coach Justin Langer compared the Ekana pitch to the famed Perth track of yesteryears, admitting that the home team has been unable to adapt to the pace and bounce on offer on it. The LSG have struggled on their home surface, losing all three matches here. They have gone down by six and seven wickets to Delhi Capitals and Gujarat Titans respectively, before suffering a 40-run defeat to Rajasthan Royals on Wednesday. The LSG lost six of their eight matches here last season, including five in a row. Overall, they have managed just nine wins from 22 games at the venue.

"The pitch here is very different than in most of India. It's a brilliant cricket pitch. You see pace and bounce, and we just haven't quite adjusted to it," Langer said at the post-match press conference. "I thought we'd started off, we'd been bowling quite well in it. We bowled well in the first game, but we're just not adjusting to the extra pace and bounce. We saw that we've been out to the short ball a number of times, our batters. "We see a lot of the wickets in India where the ball doesn't bounce very high. This is like playing at the WACA. There's real pace and bounce.You're seeing some really interesting cricket being played here," he added.