Lowest score defended in IPL history: Punjab’s 111, and how often a small total actually holds

The lowest score successfully defended in the IPL is 111, by Punjab Kings against Kolkata Knight Riders at Mullanpur on 15 April 2025. Punjab were bowled out in 15.3 overs, Kolkata were bowled out for 95 in 15.1, and Punjab won by 16 runs. Some record books print the figure as 112, because they record the target set rather than the total made. Same match, one run apart.

It is a young record. For sixteen years the mark belonged to Chennai Super Kings, who defended 116 against Punjab at Durban in May 2009, and when Sunrisers Hyderabad defended 118 at the Wankhede in 2018 the match reports called it the second lowest in the competition’s history. Below are all fourteen totals under 130 that have held, and then the part that is more useful than the record itself: how often a low total holds at all.

Every total under 130 defended in the IPL

Full length matches only, meaning both sides had twenty overs available. Rain shortened games are dealt with further down, and they are the reason other lists give a different answer.

Total	Team	Opponent	Result
111	Punjab Kings	Kolkata Knight Riders	Won by 16, 15 Apr 2025
116	Chennai Super Kings	Punjab Kings	Won by 24, 20 May 2009
118	Sunrisers Hyderabad	Mumbai Indians	Won by 31, 24 Apr 2018
119	Punjab Kings	Mumbai Indians	Won by 3, 29 Apr 2009
119	Sunrisers Hyderabad	Pune Warriors	Won by 11, 17 Apr 2013
120	Mumbai Indians	Pune Warriors	Won by 1, 3 May 2012
125	Punjab Kings	Sunrisers Hyderabad	Won by 5, 25 Sep 2021
126	Royal Challengers Bengaluru	Chennai Super Kings	Won by 14, 21 May 2008
126	Sunrisers Hyderabad	Pune Warriors	Won by 22, 5 Apr 2013
126	Punjab Kings	Sunrisers Hyderabad	Won by 12, 24 Oct 2020
126	Royal Challengers Bengaluru	Lucknow Super Giants	Won by 18, 1 May 2023
129	Deccan Chargers	Kochi Tuskers Kerala	Won by 55, 27 Apr 2011
129	Pune Warriors	Mumbai Indians	Won by 28, 6 Apr 2012
129	Mumbai Indians	Rising Pune Supergiant	Won by 1, 21 May 2017

Punjab have four of the fourteen, more than any other side, and they own the record at both ends of their own history: the 119 at Durban in 2009 and the 111 at Mullanpur in 2025. On the other side of the ledger, Mumbai Indians and Pune Warriors have each failed to chase one of these three times. Pune Warriors only ever played three IPL seasons.

How often is a low total defended?

This is the question behind the record, and the answer is a clean ladder. The table covers all 1,185 full length IPL matches that produced a result, grouped by what the side batting first scored.

First innings	Matches	Defended	Success rate
Under 120	75	5	7%
120 to 129	48	9	19%
130 to 139	79	21	27%
140 to 149	107	25	23%
150 to 159	131	41	31%
160 to 169	165	74	45%
170 to 179	150	72	48%
180 to 189	124	70	56%
190 to 199	94	61	65%
200 and over	212	161	76%

Anything under 130 has held 14 times out of 123, or 11% of the time. The break point is around 160, where the defending side goes from losing most of these matches to winning most of them, and 200 is close to a lock at 76%. The one wrinkle in the ladder is that the 130s have a better record than the 140s, which is a 79 match sample against 107 and reads as noise rather than a signal.

The league as a whole splits 646 to 539 in favour of the chase, so a side batting first wins about 45% of full length matches. That number is for matches played to twenty overs a side. Counting rain shortened games as well, which our IPL winners list does, moves it to 666 and 552.

What these defences have in common

Runs are not what saves these totals. Wickets are. In seven of the fourteen the chasing side was bowled out, and in the three lowest the chase collapsed rather than fell short.

Punjab’s 111 went to a Yuzvendra Chahal spell of 4 for 28 with Marco Jansen taking 3 for 17, on a surface at Mullanpur, a ground whose capacity our guide to the biggest cricket stadiums in the world finds listed twice at two different figures, that ESPNcricinfo’s report said was almost as helpful to the seamers as a Test pitch. Kolkata were 62 for 2 and then lost eight wickets for 33. Hyderabad’s 118 at the Wankhede in 2018 came with Rashid Khan bowling 16 dot balls and a maiden in the 17th over, and Mumbai were dismissed for 87. Chennai’s 116 at Durban went through Muttiah Muralitharan, brought on inside the powerplay, who finished with 2 for 8 from his four overs.

The mirror image is our list of the highest successful chases in IPL history, where the totals are more than double these and the bowling side never took the wickets to stop them. The pattern holds at the top of this list too. Deccan Chargers’ 129 against Kochi in 2011 is the biggest margin on the table, 55 runs, because Kochi were bowled out for 74.

The lowest total defended in an IPL final

129, by Mumbai Indians against Rising Pune Supergiant at Hyderabad on 21 May 2017, and they won it by a single run. Mitchell Johnson defended 11 in the last over, with four needed off the final ball. It remains the only IPL final decided by one run and the lowest first innings total any side has protected in a final. Hyderabad’s 113 in the 2024 final and Rajasthan’s 130 in 2022 were both chased down.

Has defending a low total got harder?

Scoring has gone up sharply and the defence rate has barely moved, which is not what most people expect. “Avg 1st” below is the average first innings score.

Era	Matches	Avg 1st	Defended	Sub 140
2008 to 2015	490	160	47%	22
2016 to 2026	695	177	44%	13

The first innings average rose by 17 runs between the two halves of the competition’s life, and the proportion of matches won batting first fell by three points. What did change is the small totals. Sub 140 defences nearly halved even though the second era contains 40% more matches, so on a per match basis they are roughly a third as common. And then Punjab set the all time record inside that second era, in 2025, which is the sort of thing that makes trend lines an unreliable guide to any single night.

Why other lists say 106

Rain. Two IPL matches were cut short enough that a side defended a total in the hundreds off far fewer than twenty overs:

Royal Challengers Bengaluru made 106 for 2 in an eight over match against Chennai at the Chinnaswamy on 18 May 2013 and won by 24. Punjab made 106 for 6 in a ten over match against Bengaluru on 13 May 2015 and won by 22. Punjab’s 111 also finished inside sixteen overs a side, but that was because both teams were bowled out in a match where twenty overs were available throughout, which is why it counts here and the other two do not.

If a list counts reduced matches, the answer is 106. If it counts only full length matches, the answer is 111. Neither is wrong; the lists that do not say which one they are answering are the problem.

Questions people ask

What is the lowest score defended in IPL history? 111 by Punjab Kings against Kolkata Knight Riders on 15 April 2025, won by 16 runs. Some records list it as a defence of 112, the target.

What was the record before that? Chennai Super Kings’ 116 against Punjab at Durban on 20 May 2009, which stood for almost sixteen years.

How often does a team defend under 130 in the IPL? 14 times in 123 attempts, or about 11%.

What is the lowest total defended in an IPL final? Mumbai Indians’ 129 against Rising Pune Supergiant in 2017, won by one run.

Which team has defended the most low totals? Punjab Kings, with four of the fourteen sub 130 defences.

How is this calculated? From the ball by ball record of every IPL match played, filtered to games where the chasing side was set a twenty over target. Figures are current to the end of the 2026 season.

More IPL records and cricket explainers

Feature image courtesy: AFP / Noah Seelam