NEW DELHI: Punjab Kings captain Shreyas Iyer left everyone stunned with a remarkable display of athleticism at the boundary ropes, drawing amazed reactions not just from fans but also from the Mumbai Indians dugout, where Rohit Sharma and Suryakumar Yadav were seen watching in disbelief.The moment came in the 18th over during the IPL 2026 clash between Mumbai Indians and Punjab Kings at the Wankhede Stadium on Thursday, when Hardik Pandya smashed Marco Jansen towards long-on.What followed was pure athletic brilliance. Sprinting swiftly to his left, Iyer tracked the ball to perfection near the boundary rope. Realising he was about to lose balance and step over, he improvised mid-air, catching the ball with a reverse cup and, while airborne, flicking it back into play.Xavier Bartlett, stationed nearby, completed the catch safely. While Bartlett’s name went into the scorebook, the effort was entirely Iyer’s creation.After the stunning effort, Iyer celebrated in style.Following Punjab Kings’ seven-wicket win, Ian Bishop asked Iyer, “At one stage Mumbai were looking for 200+, what was the key to pull the things back”.Iyer didn’t minch any word and said: “I think my catch (laugh)”.Prabhsimran Singh and Iyer struck fluent fifties as Punjab Kings continued their winning run with a commanding seven-wicket victory over Mumbai Indians, who slumped to a fourth consecutive defeat in IPL 2026.Chasing 196, Punjab Kings reached 198/3 with 21 balls to spare, as Mumbai Indians’ bowlers struggled collectively, with AM Ghazanfar’s 2/31 being the only notable effort.“Confident and optimistic going forward. We’ve been playing phenomenally. We know each game is important, it’s a collective effort, glad to have a comprehensive win. Prabhsimran has raised his bar, considering the last season, where he swung wild, got runs and gave excellent starts. Now he’s got maturity and finishing off games. He’s maturing with each game”, Iyer said after the match.“My catch was the key to pulling things back (laughs), but we have the tendency to do that. Did that even against SRH. We have to be present and enjoy the moment. We haven’t decided on how to set totals, lucky to have won tosses so far. We have a lot of positive players ready to go out there and express themselves. You need to keep getting better each game, focus on yourselves and that’s the recipe we’ve been following. I’ve seen crowd coming in numbers, the fan following is going high. Great to see fans showering their love”, he said.Punjab Kings will next face Lucknow Super Giants on April 19.
