On 25 April 2026, the Punjab Kings pulled off the highest run chase in IPL history, hunting down 265 against the Delhi Capitals at the Arun Jaitley Stadium. Chasing 265 to win, Punjab got home at 265/4 in just 18.5 overs, winning by six wickets and bettering their own record of 262 set against the Kolkata Knight Riders in 2024. Months later, the 270/4 of Washington Freedom in MLC 2026 took the all-time T20 record, but inside the IPL, The 265 of Punjab remains the benchmark no team has touched.
This is the full story of that record night in Delhi, the innings that built it, and the complete top five highest successful chases the IPL has ever seen. For everyone asking what is the highest run chase in IPL history and who holds the highest chase record in IPL, the answer is the same team, twice over: Punjab Kings. Explore more great chases in our IPL records section.
Who Holds the IPL Highest Chase Record?
The record belongs to the Punjab Kings. On 25 April 2026, Delhi Capitals won the toss and chose to bat, and then KL Rahul played one of the great T20 innings. The Delhi opener smashed an unbeaten 152 off just 67 balls, with 16 fours and nine sixes, powering Delhi to 264/2. It was the highest IPL score by an Indian batter, the third-highest individual score in IPL history, behind only the 175* of Chris Gayle and the 158* of Brendon McCullum, and it was the sixth IPL century of Rahul. The 91 off 44 balls of Nitish Rana gave him superb support in a mammoth 220-run second-wicket stand, and The 264/2 of Delhi was the seventh-highest team total in IPL history. For more on the biggest individual knocks, see our highest score in an IPL innings records.
Everyone in the stadium thought the game was done. Punjab had other ideas.
How Punjab Kings Chased 265: Ball-by-Ball Story of the Record
The reply of Punjab started at a scarcely believable tempo. Openers Prabhsimran Singh and Priyansh Arya smashed 126 runs in just 6.5 overs, treating a Delhi attack featuring Arshdeep Singh and Kuldeep Yadav with complete disdain. Prabhsimran led the charge with 76 off 26 balls, nine fours and five sixes, while Arya smashed 43 off 17 with five sixes of his own.
Delhi hit back with three quick wickets, and when the openers fell in successive overs, the chase wobbled. That was when captain Shreyas Iyer took charge. Dropped twice by Karun Nair, the turning point of the night, Iyer finished unbeaten on 71 off 36 balls, hitting seven sixes, and got the job done with seven balls to spare. Punjab closed on 265/4 in 18.5 overs, winning by six wickets in a game that produced 49 boundaries and 33 sixes. It remains the biggest run chase in IPL, and the definitive answer to which team chased 265 in the IPL.
The innings showed how far modern T20 batting has come. Opening stands like this are explored in our both opening batters scoring fifty in IPL records, while the boundary carnage fits the most sixes in an IPL innings and most runs from boundaries in an IPL innings leaderboards.
Full Scorecard Summary: DC vs PBKS, 25 April 2026
| Innings | Score | Top performers |
|---|---|---|
| Delhi Capitals 20 overs | 264/2 | KL Rahul 152* (67), Nitish Rana 91 (44); Arshdeep Singh 1/49 |
| Punjab Kings 18.5 overs | 265/4 | Prabhsimran Singh 76 (26), Shreyas Iyer 71* (36), Priyansh Arya 43 (17); Kuldeep Yadav 2/46 |
| Result | Punjab Kings won by 6 wickets (7 balls remaining), highest successful chase in IPL history | |
Detailed reports of the match are available at NDTV Sports and Wisden.
Top 5 Highest Run Chases in IPL History
Punjab Kings own the top two entries on this list, quite a statement about their chasing pedigree. Here is the complete top five, every one of them a highest target chased in IPL at the time it was completed:
| Rank | Target chased | Team | Opponent | Venue | Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 265/4 | Punjab Kings | Delhi Capitals | Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi | 2026 |
| 2 | 262/2 | Punjab Kings | Kolkata Knight Riders | Eden Gardens, Kolkata | 2024 |
| 3 | 247/2 | Sunrisers Hyderabad | Punjab Kings | Hyderabad | 2025 |
| 4 | 230/4 | Royal Challengers Bengaluru | Lucknow Super Giants | Lucknow | 2025 |
| 5 | 229 | Sunrisers Hyderabad | Rajasthan Royals | Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur | 2026 |
The 2024 chase at Eden Gardens, 262/2 against KKR, stood as the record for two years before Punjab broke it themselves. The 2025 entries show how chasing 230-plus has become almost routine for the bravest batting units of the league: the 247/2 of Sunrisers Hyderabad against Punjab featured the 141 of Abhishek Sharma, one of the great modern IPL hundreds (see the highest IPL score of Abhishek Sharma), while the 230/4 of RCB against Lucknow was built on fearless middle-order hitting. For the full century leaderboard, check the fastest centuries in IPL history and the highest IPL score of Chris Gayle pages.
Is 265/4 the Highest Chase in All T20 Cricket?
Not anymore. On 15 July 2026, Washington Freedom chased down 267 against MI New York in the MLC 2026 Eliminator at the Oakland Coliseum, finishing on 270/4 in 18.4 overs to set a new all-time T20 record. the unbeaten 110 off 48 balls of captain Steve Smith and the 132 off 51 of Andries Gous, in a 241-run third-wicket stand, overhauled the 266/9 of MI New York, which had featured the 106 off 33 balls of Nicholas Pooran. The match produced 51 sixes, the most in any T20 game ever played. The statistical breakdown of the Freedom chase by ESPN confirms it as the highest successful run chase in T20 history.
So the picture is clear: the 270/4 of Washington Freedom is the highest chase in all T20 cricket, which means the answer to is 265 the highest chase in T20 cricket is no. the 265/4 of Punjab Kings remains the highest run chase in IPL history, and going by the way scoring is climbing in the league, it may not stay unbeaten for long. Our highest team score in T20 cricket page tracks how totals keep rising across leagues.
Why This Record Matters
The Punjab Kings 265 chase was about more than power, it was about belief. For a decade, 200 was considered a winning total in the IPL; then 220 became chaseable; now 265 has been hunted down with more than an over to spare. No IPL final has ever produced a chase remotely close to 265, which shows just how far beyond even title-deciding cricket this record sits in any discussion of the highest run chase in IPL final history. The method of Punjab, attacking from ball one, never letting the required rate climb, has become the template for modern chasing. The highest powerplay score in IPL records and the fastest half-century in IPL charts tell the same story.
It also stamped the reputation of Shreyas Iyer as one of the finest chasers in the league, explore his leadership record in our Punjab Kings captains in IPL guide, and added another chapter to the players who scored 99 runs in IPL near-miss folklore that makes the batting records of the league so compelling. For season-long run-scoring feats, the most runs in an IPL season and highest partnership in IPL history pages complete the picture, alongside our Rohit Sharma highest score in IPL, fastest to 3000 IPL runs and fastest 1000 runs in IPL guides. The global T20 cricket archive tracks the biggest moments of the format.
Conclusion
The highest run chase in IPL history, the 265/4 of Punjab Kings against Delhi Capitals on 25 April 2026, rewrote what is possible in a T20 chase. The unbeaten 152 of KL Rahul deserved to win any match; instead it became a footnote to the blitz of Prabhsimran Singh, the cameo of Priyansh Arya and the ice-cold finish of Shreyas Iyer. With the 270/4 of Washington Freedom later raising the all-T20 bar even higher, the race to chase down the impossible is well and truly on. Stay on top of the league with our cricket news section.
What is the highest run chase in IPL history?
The highest successful run chase in IPL history is 265/4 by Punjab Kings against Delhi Capitals at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on 25 April 2026. Punjab won by six wickets with seven balls to spare.
Who scored the most runs in the record 265-run chase?
KL Rahul top-scored in the match with an unbeaten 152 off 67 balls for Delhi Capitals, the highest IPL score by an Indian batter, but finished on the losing side. For Punjab, Prabhsimran Singh made 76 off 26 and Shreyas Iyer finished 71 not out off 36.
What was the previous highest IPL chase before 265?
Punjab Kings themselves held the previous record: 262/2 against Kolkata Knight Riders at Eden Gardens in 2024, chasing 261. They bettered their own mark by three runs in 2026.
Is 265 the highest chase in T20 cricket?
No. Washington Freedom chased 267 against MI New York (finishing 270/4) in the MLC 2026 Eliminator on 15 July 2026, which is the highest successful chase in all T20 cricket. The 265/4 of Punjab remains the IPL record.
Which teams feature in the top five highest IPL chases?
Punjab Kings appear twice (265 vs DC in 2026 and 262 vs KKR in 2024), Sunrisers Hyderabad appear twice (247 vs PBKS in 2025 and 229 vs RR in 2026), and Royal Challengers Bengaluru once (230 vs LSG in 2025).
