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The IPL 2026 season ended on May 31, with the Royal Challengers Bengaluru achieving a special two-peat of the title after initially waiting for 18 long years for the maiden title. This fairytale ending of another season was a conclusion of another blockbuster season of the biggest T20 festival in the world, where players put on some of the most memorable performances of their T20 careers. This also includes some of the finest catches you would ever see.
While the overall catching standard was below-par this season, with a plethora of chances going down, fans still saw some of the most sensational grabs you would see on the cricket field. In this article, we rate the top-5 best catches of IPL 2026.

During the Sunrisers Hyderabad clash against the Kolkata Knight Riders in Hyderabad, the hosts batted first and got off to a great start, scoring 105/2 in 9 overs. To avoid the in-form Heinrich Klaasen from converting it into a big score, Cameron Green bowled a bouncer on Klaasen's right shoulder. The batter pulled in towards Rovman Powell at deep midwicket at the 10.4-over mark.

Powell, who was initially far away, came running in and overran a bit as he needed to dive backwards for a single-handed worldie. He crashed into the ground, and his sunglasses were crushed, but Powell held on to the ball, and SRH was reduced to 117/3 and eventually bowled out for 165 runs.

Having lost all of their first three matches of IPL 2026, the Chennai Super Kings posted 212/2 in 20 overs, courtesy of a Sanju Samson century. DC also got a decent start through Pathum Nissanka and KL Rahul, as they looked to chase down the target.

However, after two back-to-back wickets at 61, Axar Patel promoted himself to 4 to provide stability to the chase. As soon as the powerplay ended and Gurjapneet Singh was brought into the attack, he bowled a short delivery outside off, which was cut by Axar Patel, and the ball looked like it would race away to the fence.

Often questioned about his fitness, Sarfaraz Khan went flying at the backward point and caught Patel in mid-air. The two-handed catch was then celebrated with an Imran Tahir-esque lap in the stadium by Sarfaraz as DC went from 61/0 to 66/3.

In the curtain raiser of the season at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, RCB hosted SRH and asked them to bat first. Following early wickets of both Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma, the stand-in captain Ishan Kishan looked in midas touch like the recent T20Is for India. While he was cruising towards a century and the team was looking to reach a formidable total, Abhinandan Singh bowled a rather avoidable full toss on the off stump. Kishan timed it towards the deep backward point boundary, and it looked to be reaching the fence.

During match 57 of the season, as KKR were fighting for their survival in IPL 2026, Manish Pandey had found his way back into the playing XI after starting the season on the bench. Trying to defend 193 runs on the night in Raipur, Virat Kohli was holding onto one end perfectly and also had a good partnership with Devdutt Padikkal.

At the 17.5-over mark, when the equation came to 13 needed off 14, Tim David slashed Kartik Tyagi with brute force between the short third and backward point. Just when it felt like the ball was going away to the boundary like a bullet, Manish Pandey stunned everyone with a single-handed full-stretch diving catch on a dipping ball to send David back to the hut.

Everyone in the stadium, including David, Kohli, and the RCB dugout, looked shell-shocked, and Kohli also hugged Pandey after the catch. RCB went on to win the match, and this was also awarded as the best catch of the season.