Australian all-rounder Glenn Maxwell is no stranger to moments on magic on the cricket field and on Sunday, in the first T20I against South Africa in Darwin, he produced another spectacular fielding effort.
In the last over of the match, with Australia close to a rather comfortable win, Ryan Rickelton swung through the line to a Ben Dwarshius delivery. At long on, Maxwell was waiting underneath the downward curve of the ball, threw himself beyond the boundary line and flipped the ball over his shoulders into the field of play, landed outside the ropes but quickly jumped back in, to complete a stunner of a catch. Rickelton was dismissed for 71 off 55 balls when SA needed 21 off 5 balls. Australia, who scored 178 earlier riding on a whirlwind 52-ball 83 by Tim David, went on to win 17 runs.
The TV umpire took his time to decide if it was a legal catch and there were some questions regarding the validity of it because of the new rules that have come into play.
GLENN MAXWELL DOES IT AGAIN 🤩 #AUSvSA pic.twitter.com/FQkfbqLzpB
— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) August 10, 2025
Late in June this year, the ICC had announced quite a few changes to the playing conditions, one of which was regarding boundary catches. “Changes to the playing conditions now require a fielder who makes airborne contact with the ball beyond the boundary to then land and remain inside the boundary,” the governing body had stated. “A fielder, after making their first contact with the ball subsequently leaves the field of play, can only make contact with the ball once more while airborne beyond the boundary. Having done so, they must land and remain wholly within the boundary. This applies even if another player completes the fielding.”
Based on this, Maxwell’s catch would be legitimate as he makes contact with the ball, while airborne, only once and his next contact with the ground is within in the field of play.
Outrageous catch from Michael Neser 😱
Allow Glenn Maxwell to explain why it’s a legit catch #BBL12 pic.twitter.com/7YORTIUFat
— 7Cricket (@7Cricket) January 1, 2023
Incidentally, as reported by ESPNCricinfo, the new changes to the boundary catch rule were to prevent “bunny hopping” catches like the one in Big Bash League that Michael Neser pulled off. As seen in the video below, Neser makes a second contact with the ball beyond the boundary even though he is airborne while doing it – hopping like a bunny, if you would – to take a legitimate catch as per the rules back then. Glenn Maxwell, coincidentally enough, is on commentary for this particular catch, explaining the legality of it, where he added that Neser could have done that hop 300 times and it would have been still a valid catch… but not anymore.
According to the ESPNCricinfo report, “the ICC cricket committee asked the MCC, the custodians of the laws, to review the law in question and the two bodies have worked together on the new version. An MCC note, which was sent to member boards by the ICC, said that while the existing rule had ‘led to some spectacular’ fielding, it had also created room for ‘some unusual-looking catches that, to the majority of the cricketing public, feel unfair’.” The Neser catch, evidently, was a turning point. This change was to be implemented in international cricket right away and then to be included in the MCC Laws of Cricket next year.
