shashank singh was at the center of Punjab Kings’ fielding collapse on Wednesday, May 6, 2026, when three straightforward catches went down in a little over three overs against Sunrisers Hyderabad. Ricky Ponting was on a live broadcast when the third miss arrived and said he was close to throwing the microphone on the field.
Cooper Connolly dropped Ishan Kishan in the eighth over when he was on 9, then Shashank spilled a sitter off Yuzvendra Chahal at deep backward square leg in the next over. That was his fifth dropped catch in the last three matches, and it came before the fielding sequence turned even worse around the 10-over mark.
Ponting’s Live Reaction
Lockie Ferguson then dropped Kishan on 18 while Ponting was still being interviewed, and Prabhsimran Singh missed a stumping chance off Chahal in the spinner’s next over. Ponting did not hide his frustration with the sequence, saying, “I am pretty close to throwing the microphone on the field.”
He also addressed the wider problem in blunt terms: “Look, it’s been a bit of a virus for us, to be honest. We’ve put a lot of catches down so far this season. The boys have worked exceptionally hard and poor old Shashank there, it just looks like the chances are following him around everywhere he goes. He’s sitting under a high ball,”
Shashank Singh’s Stretch
Shashank’s miss carried extra weight because Ponting said he had missed a couple of games with a left hamstring and had taken about a week and a half to get back. Ponting said he had done all his work over the last week to be physically right to play, while Punjab Kings had ramped up catching drills over the last five or six days.
That did not stop the errors from coming in a short burst. Three dropped chances arrived in a little over three overs, and Sunrisers Hyderabad kept moving toward a big total as Ishan Kishan added 55 runs and Heinrich Klaasen reached his fifty in 32 balls.
Sunrisers Hyderabad’s Total
Sunrisers Hyderabad crossed the 200-run mark in 17.1 overs, with the sequence of missed chances helping keep the innings alive. For Punjab Kings, the issue was not one bad ball or one bad over; it was a cluster of basic fielding errors that came one after another while their head coach was still answering questions on live television.
