Punjab Kings (PBKS) skipper Shreyas Iyer produced a spectacular fielding effort to dismiss his Mumbai Indians (MI) counterpart Hardik Pandya in an IPL 2026 match at the Wankhede Stadium on Thursday (April 16).

During the 18th over of MI’s innings, Hardik hit a ball from Marco Jansen high into the air down the ground. Shreyas ran to his left from long-on, leaped sideways, and caught the ball while airborne.

Realizing his momentum was taking him over the boundary rope, the Punjab captain flicked the ball up, landed outside the boundary, and then relayed it back to Xavier Bartlett, who was nearby, to complete the catch.

Shreyas Iyer’s athletic brilliance drew rich praise from the commentators and left his teammates and the MI dugout stunned.  

On Saturday (April 18), Iyer’s effort received an ultimate recognition from former South African cricketer Jonty Rhodes, who is widely regarded as one of the greatest fielders of all time.

Taking to X, Jonty wrote: “Watching @ShreyasIyer15 perform that acrobatic fielding to assist in taking the ‘team catch’ made me appreciate how fielding has evolved since my retirement.”

He added, “For a long time, I felt like the ‘father of fielding’, but watching these modern athletes with their timing and awareness on the boundary line, makes me feel like the ‘grandfather of fielding’!”

During his career, Jonty Rhodes built his reputation largely inside the ring, but modern white-ball cricket has shifted the focus to specialized boundary fielding.

“I spent 99% of my career fielding in the inner circle, and when I started working as a fielding coach, there was no focus on the modern day ‘hotspots’ on the boundaries,” Rhodes wrote.

“It was only when I started working with @mipaltan and saw Kieron Pollard, and then Glenn Maxwell, performing these incredible “airborne saves” on the boundaries that we started focusing on not only taking catches off balls that were already beyond the rope, but even saving the ball from going for a sixer, and forcing the batters to run only 1 or 2.”

“With impact players transforming the way that batters can continuously attack the bowling, even with the loss of 4-5 wickets, bowlers need to be backed up by their fielders, and Shreyas’ spectacular“catch and release” was a perfect example of that,” he remarked.

He concluded with an appreciation for PBKS head coach Ricky Ponting. “But let’s face it; when your head coach is @RickyPonting, one of the greatest fielders in the game, it should not come as a great surprise to see such incredible feats in the field!”