With a stunning victory over Delhi Capitals on April 25, the Punjab Kings scripted the highest successful run chase in T20 cricket, chasing down a target of 265 runs in 18.5 overs at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi. The six-wicket victory with seven balls left to play was their sixth win. It helped Punjab Kings remain unbeaten at the top of the standings in IPL 2026.
Punjab Kings’ win probability was an abominable 14.83% before the game started, according to ESPNCricinfo’s Forecaster. What ensued made that percentage look ludicrous.
KL Rahul Rewrites the Record Books
Delhi Capitals set the stage with a fascinating batting performance that saw several records broken. KL Rahul’s unbeaten 152 is the third-highest individual score in IPL history, after Chris Gayle’s 175* against Pune Warriors India in 2013 and Brendon McCullum’s 158* against Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2008.
Rahul’s effort is also the highest individual score by an Indian in the IPL. He has gone past Abhishek Sharma’s 141, and the highest individual score by an Indian in men’s T20S, past Tilak Varma’s 151 against Meghalaya in 2024.
Rahul has also scored his fastest IPL century (off 47 balls), smacking his hundred with a well-placed drive to square leg off Marco Jansen in the 15th over. He went from 100 to 150 in just 19 more balls. Rahul’s 152* is now the highest losing T20 individual score (the previous one was 151* by Gayle for Somerset vs Kent in 2015).
His second-wicket partnership of 220 with Nitish Rana is the second-highest by two players sharing this privilege in the IPL; the highest is 229 between two RCB players (AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli) against Gujarat Lions in 2016. Rana was dismissed for 91 off 44 by Xavier Bartlett. Delhi Capitals ended on 264 for 2, their best in the IPL.
Prabhsimran and Arya Tear Apart the Powerplay
The Kings’ batters got off to a strong start. Prabhsimran Singh and Priyansh Arya hit the ground running, scoring the second-highest powerplay total of the IPL at 116 for 0, nine runs shy of the highest with the Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Delhi Capitals clash at the same ground in 2024.
Prabhsimran Singh and Priyansh Arya scored 116 in the power play. Both openers then got out to two consecutive spin overs as Delhi tried to recover. Prabhsimran blasted 76 off 26 balls, while Arya hit 43 off 17.
Prabhsimran cracked six fours in the sixth over, bowled by Mukesh Kumar to become only the third batter in IPL history to do so, following Ajinkya Rahane (bowled by S Aravind in 2012) and Prithvi Shaw (bowled by Shivam Mavi in 2021).
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Shreyas Iyer Finishes the Job
With three wickets lost for 40 runs, the Punjab side’s captain, Shreyas Iyer, took charge of the chase. Shreyas was so good at chasing that the Punjab Kings won the match with more than a full over in hand. He was unbeaten on 71 at the end of his innings, which contained three fours and seven sixes, off 36 balls.
The 529 runs scored on both sides were the second-highest for any IPL game and the second-highest for any T20 game. The highest is 549 runs by SRH vs RCB in Bengaluru in 2024.
Also broken is the record for most boundaries hit in a T20 match, with 82 hit in both innings, surpassing the earlier record of 81, three times.
It was a bitter defeat for the Delhi Capitals. Their skipper, Axar Patel, put their loss in context after the game, saying they had lost a game they deserved to lose. Punjab Kings, unbeaten in the 2026 season so far, have once again demonstrated that it’s never safe to predict before T20 games.
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