264 Wasn't Enough. KL Rahul Scored 152 And Still Lost. The Most Insane IPL Match Ever Played.

 

There is a number that has lived in cricket fans' heads for years. 263. The highest total ever successfully chased in T20 cricket. A number so far beyond what the format was supposed to produce that it felt like a ceiling — the absolute outer limit of what was humanly possible when a team with a bat in their hand was told to get runs.

On April 25, 2026, at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi, Punjab Kings walked past it with seven balls to spare.

265. Chased. Done. New record. And the maddest part of the whole evening? The man who scored 152 not out — the highest score by an Indian in IPL history — ended up on the losing side.

KL Rahul batted through all 20 overs of Delhi Capitals' innings in 41-degree heat. He was so exhausted at the halfway mark that he was panting through his post-innings interview. He hit the ball to every corner of the ground, went from 100 to 150 in 19 balls, and gave DC a total that would have won literally any other T20 game played in the history of the format.

It was not enough. Not even close to enough. And that tells you everything you need to know about what April 25, 2026 was.

How 264 Happened — The KL Rahul Masterclass

Delhi Capitals were asked to bat first on a pitch that was flat, true, and offering absolutely nothing to the bowlers. KL Rahul walked out to open and immediately looked in the kind of touch that makes fielding captains rethink their careers.

He found a partner in Nitish Rana who was equally destructive. Together they put on 220 runs — a partnership that carried DC from a solid start to a position of complete and utter domination. Rana contributed 91 off 44 balls, hitting the Punjab Kings attack for six sixes and seven fours before falling in the 16th over. He had done his job. DC were already beyond 180 when he departed.

Then Rahul finished the innings alone. He went from 100 to 150 in 19 balls — an acceleration so brutal that Punjab Kings simply had no answer. His final ball was a controlled uppercut off Arshdeep Singh's short delivery on the penultimate ball of the innings that sent the crowd into a frenzy and took him to 152 not out off 67 deliveries.

The numbers from that innings are almost offensive. 152 not out. 67 balls. 13 fours and 10 sixes. 118 runs in boundaries alone — a new IPL record for the most boundary runs in a single innings. First Indian to score 150 or more in the IPL. Third batter ever to reach that mark in the tournament's history, behind only Chris Gayle's 175 not out in 2013 and Brendon McCullum's legendary 158 not out in the very first IPL match in 2008.

DC posted 264 for 2. At the halfway break, every analyst, every commentator, every data model agreed on one thing — this match was over. ESPNcricinfo's Forecaster had Punjab Kings' win probability at 14.83 per cent. In other words: Delhi had an 85 per cent chance of winning. The number was set. The job was done.

Except it was not.

116 In The Powerplay. The Chase That Rewrote History.

Priyansh Arya and Prabhsimran Singh opened for Punjab Kings. What happened in the first six overs of that chase needs to be understood in the context of what the target was. PBKS needed 265. They needed to average more than 13 runs per over. They needed the kind of start that barely happens in T20 cricket even when teams are chasing 160.

They scored 116 in the powerplay.

One hundred and sixteen. Nine fours and ten sixes. In six overs. Against a DC attack that included Axar Patel, Kuldegh Yadav, and Arshdeep Singh — three of the most experienced T20 bowlers in Indian domestic cricket. DC's bowlers did not bowl badly. Arya and Prabhsimran simply batted on a different planet for those first six overs.

By the time the powerplay ended and DC's spinners started to operate, PBKS were so far ahead of the required rate that they could afford to lose wickets. And lose wickets they did — Arya gone, Prabhsimran gone for 76 off 26 balls, Cooper Connolly dismissed by Kuldeep's wrong 'un in the tenth over — and suddenly PBKS were 145 for 3 with ten overs remaining, needing 120 more.

This is where Shreyas Iyer arrived.

The Captain's Knock That Sealed It

Shreyas Iyer did not bat like a man chasing history. He batted like a man doing a job — measured where he needed to be, brutal when the opportunity arrived. He dropped two catches, survived two reprieves from the DC fielders, and finished with 71 not out off 36 balls — an innings that will be remembered far longer than some of his more aesthetically beautiful centuries.

He pumped Vipraj Nigam into the sightscreen to accelerate in the 11th over. He found the boundaries with increasing regularity as the total climbed. And when the winning run came with seven balls to spare, PBKS had joined an extremely short list of teams who have produced moments in this IPL season that nobody saw coming.

265 for 4. 18.5 overs. Six wickets to spare. Seven balls remaining. The highest successful chase in IPL history. The highest successful chase in all T20 cricket history. Done.

The Numbers That Make No Sense

Some matches need scorecards. This one needs a moment of silence first — and then the scorecard.

DC vs PBKS — IPL 2026 Match 35
🔵 Delhi Capitals	264/2 (20 ov) — KL Rahul 152*, Nitish Rana 91
🔴 Punjab Kings	265/4 (18.5 ov) — Prabhsimran 76, Shreyas Iyer 71*
Result	PBKS won by 6 wickets 🏆
⭐ POTM	KL Rahul — 152* off 67 balls (yes, on the losing side)
Total runs	529 in 38.5 overs

529 runs in 38.5 overs. The highest match aggregate in DC vs PBKS IPL history. KL Rahul's 152 not out is now the highest individual score by anyone on the losing side in T20 cricket — beating Chris Gayle's previous record by a single run. Chris Gayle's records have been falling regularly in IPL 2026 — first Abhishek Sharma's 130-plus count, now this. The greatest T20 batter the game has ever seen is having his legacy rewritten, one match at a time, by a generation of batters who simply refuse to accept the limits he set.

What This Means For Both Teams

For Punjab Kings, this win does more than just add two points to their total. It sends a message to every other team in IPL 2026 — that this PBKS side, under Shreyas Iyer, has the batting depth and the temperament to chase anything. Anything. In a tournament already defined by extraordinary batting performances, Punjab Kings have now produced the greatest chase the competition has ever seen. They are not just contenders — they are dangerous.

For Delhi Capitals, the loss is one of the cruelest in IPL history. KL Rahul gave everything — literally everything, panting through his interview in 41-degree heat, batting through 20 overs alone — and it was not enough. DC's bowling attack simply could not defend a total that should have been undefendable. Their fielding let them down at critical moments. And they head into the second half of the group stage knowing that they have now lost a game in which they scored 264.

Cricket in 2026 has decided that no score is safe. DC found that out the hard way on April 25. The rest of the IPL has been warned.

Stay with The Yorker Crew for complete IPL 2026 and PSL 2026 coverage every single day. Check out Abhishek Sharma's record-breaking night against DC, the Babar Azam comeback story, and our Vaibhav Suryavanshi full feature for more from the most extraordinary cricket season in years. 🏏