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Legendary South African fielder Jonty Rhodes is in awe of Punjab Kings (PBKS) captain Shreyas Iyer’s sensational catch on the boundary to dismiss Mumbai Indians (MI) skipper Hardik Pandya. Like Suryakumar Yadav and Rohit Sharma, Rhodes was impressed by Iyer’s successful acrobatic attempt. He took to social media to explain how the fielding department has evolved in the past few decades.
“Watching @ShreyasIyer15 perform that acrobatic fielding to assist in taking the “team catch “ made me appreciate how fielding has evolved since my retirement. 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” Rhodes wrote on X.
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Rhodes pointed out that the hotspots of fielding have changed. He used to be stationed inside the 30-yard circle whereas now impactful fielders are seen patrolling the boundaries, looking to take relay catches or save runs for their team with airborne saves.
“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. 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,” Rhodes recalled.
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Rhodes says that in the age of impact player helping the batting side, fielders need to back their fielders. He also mentioned PBKS head coach Ricky Ponting who has taken spectacular catches in his career as well.
“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. 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!” the 56-year-old concluded.
Iyer’s form with bat, PBKS unbeaten in IPL 2026
Not just as a fielder, Iyer has been making an impact with the bat as well. From four innings, he has scored 203 runs at an average of 67.67 and strike rate of 187.96. He has three fifties in the ongoing tournament already. PBKS are also on the top of the points table and the only side which is yet to face a loss in IPL 2026.
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