Punjab chase 265 in 18.5 overs to break the highest successful T20 chase ever set
Punjab Kings did the impossible at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Saturday. Set 265 to win by Delhi Capitals, they got there in 18.5 overs, won by six wickets, and rewrote the record book on the way. No team in IPL or in any men's T20 had ever chased that score down before.
A powerplay that broke the game open
The chase needed something silly at the top, and Prabhsimran Singh and Priyansh Arya gave it that. The two openers put on 126 in just 6.5 overs, hitting 105 in the powerplay alone. Prabhsimran finished with 76 off 26 with nine fours and five sixes; Arya's contribution was 43 off 17. By the time Delhi got their first reset, the equation had been shrunk from impossible to merely steep.
Shreyas Iyer then did what he has been doing for Punjab all season. He came in with the rate still climbing, and he simply held the chase together. His unbeaten 71 off 36 took the side home, with Shashank Singh's quick 19 not out finishing the job. Karun Nair shelled Iyer twice in the field, and on a night where every chance counted, Delhi will be replaying those drops for a while.
KL Rahul's 152 was historic and not enough
Delhi's 264 for 2 had felt like more than enough. KL Rahul's unbeaten 152 off 67 balls, with 16 fours and nine sixes, was the highest individual score by an Indian batter in IPL history. Only Brendon McCullum's 158 not out and Chris Gayle's 175 not out sit ahead of it on the all-time list. Rahul and Nitish Rana, who hit 91 off 44, put on 220 for the second wicket, the second-biggest stand for any wicket the IPL has ever seen.
None of it mattered by 9pm Indian time. Punjab were already top of the table going into this match, and they leave Delhi having extended an unbeaten run that is starting to look unreasonable. The previous highest successful T20 chase had also belonged to Punjab, against Kolkata in IPL 2024. They have now broken their own record.
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