IPL Highest Target: A Record-Breaking Look at the Highest Run Chases in IPL History

The floodlights glare. The crowd is unhinged. A target of 230 looks insurmountable, yet KL Rahul flicks the first ball through square like it’s just another Sunday knock. Welcome to the Indian Premier League, where no score feels safe, and no script sticks till the final delivery.

There’s something magnetic about chasing a monstrous total. The pressure is split — bowlers sweating over every miss, batters swinging like there’s no tomorrow. These high-octane chases are where stars are made, reputations are rewritten, and fans forget to breathe.

The IPL highest target isn’t just a stat. It’s an idea — that in this format, chaos rules, and 240 might not be enough. Every few seasons, a new total pops up, leaving jaws on the floor and bowlers in disbelief. That’s what makes the highest run target in IPL such a big deal. It’s less about the number and more about the madness behind it—the kind of explosive cricket that keeps cricket live IPL streams buzzing and fans glued to every over, waiting to see if history will be rewritten once again.

“In the IPL, no target is ever safe. One over can change everything.” — Harsha Bhogle.

What Is the Highest Target in IPL History?

Let’s break it down. In T20 cricket, the target is the score a team needs to win. If Team A bats first and slaps 230 on the board, then 231 becomes the target for Team B.

But here’s the thing — the term highest target in IPL history can mean two things. It could refer to the largest total ever set by a team, or the most runs ever chased down successfully.

For clarity:

• The highest team total is the biggest score posted in a single innings.
  
• The highest IPL target chased is the largest total that was successfully hunted down.
  

Both speak volumes, but in different ways. The former shows dominance with the bat upfront. The latter is about nerve, timing, and sometimes, a touch of madness.

Venue conditions also weigh in. Flat pitches like those in Bengaluru or Delhi offer batters a red carpet. Grounds like Chennai or Lucknow, with their sticky surfaces, aren’t as generous. Even weather can change things — humid air keeps the ball low, dry outfields make it fly. And of course, current form and confidence—when a batter’s seeing it like a beach ball, 250 can feel like 180.

So when we say “IPL highest run target,” we’re talking about the Everest of T20 cricket. It’s the summit few teams even dare to dream of reaching.

Top 10 Highest Targets Set in IPL History

Here’s a look at the top dogs — the teams that went full-throttle and left the scoreboard gasping.

Highest Team Totals in IPL (2008–2025)

Rank	Team	Score	Opposition	Venue	Year
1	Royal Challengers Bangalore	263/5	Pune Warriors	Bengaluru	2013
2	Lucknow Super Giants	257/5	Punjab Kings	Mohali	2023
3	Royal Challengers Bangalore	248/3	Gujarat Lions	Bengaluru	2016
4	Chennai Super Kings	246/5	Rajasthan Royals	Chennai	2010
5	Kolkata Knight Riders	245/6	Kings XI Punjab	Indore	2018
6	Chennai Super Kings	240/5	Punjab Kings	Mohali	2008
7	Delhi Capitals	231/4	Punjab Kings	Delhi	2011
8	Mumbai Indians	223/6	Punjab Kings	Mumbai	2021
9	Rajasthan Royals	222/2	Delhi Capitals	Jaipur	2023
10	Punjab Kings	221/6	Kolkata Knight Riders	Kolkata	2019

These scores weren’t built on chance. They were fuelled by storm innings — Gayle’s 175, Rahul’s furious 50-ball tons, Russell’s carnage — each a chapter in the tale of IPL highest target history.

Top 5 Successful Run Chases in IPL History

Chasing a mountain is rare in the IPL. But every now and then, a team pulls off the unthinkable. Let’s dive into five such heists that left even seasoned fans gobsmacked.

1. Rajasthan Royals vs Punjab Kings – 2020

• Target: 224
  
• Venue: Sharjah
  
• Star Performers: Sanju Samson 85 (42), Rahul Tewatia 53 (31)
  
• Turning Point: Tewatia’s 5 sixes in one over off Sheldon Cottrell
  
• Result: RR won by 4 wickets with 3 balls to spare
  

The match was slipping, until Tewatia — previously crawling at a strike rate of 60 — exploded. One over. Five sixes. The highest run target in IPL looked mortal.

2. Mumbai Indians vs Chennai Super Kings – 2021

• Target: 219
  
• Venue: Delhi
  
• Star Performers: Kieron Pollard 87* (34)
  
• Turning Point: Pollard’s 6,6,4,6 blitz in the 17th over
  
• Result: MI won by 4 wickets on the final ball
  

Pollard did Pollard things. Flat pitch, small ground, and no bowler was safe.

3. Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Rajasthan Royals – 2023

• Target: 215
  
• Venue: Jaipur
  
• Star Performers: Abhishek Sharma 55 (34), Glenn Phillips 25 (7)
  
• Turning Point: 24-run 19th over
  
• Result: SRH won by 4 wickets
  

One of the most underrated chases in recent IPL memory — clinical, composed, then chaotic in the final overs.

4. Delhi Capitals vs Gujarat Lions – 2017

• Target: 209
  
• Venue: Delhi
  
• Star Performers: Rishabh Pant 97 (43), Sanju Samson 61 (31)
  
• Turning Point: Pant’s 27-run over against Basil Thampi
  
• Result: DC won by 7 wickets
  

Pant wasn’t just chasing runs. He was chasing fear out of the dressing room.

5. Kolkata Knight Riders vs Royal Challengers Bangalore – 2022

• Target: 206
  
• Venue: Eden Gardens
  
• Star Performers: Venkatesh Iyer 89 (45), Andre Russell 45* (21)
  
• Turning Point: Russell’s switch-hits and pull shots in final 3 overs
  
• Result: KKR won with 5 balls left
  

These games show exactly why fans tune in. It’s not just cricket. It’s an edge-of-the-seat war.

The Anatomy of Big Totals: Factors Behind the Highest Run Target in IPL

Massive scores don’t just happen. They’re built, brick by brick, over twenty overs. Here’s how.

1. Powerplay Mayhem

The first six overs often dictate tempo. Teams like RCB or LSG go full tilt, with openers like Faf du Plessis or Stoinis clearing boundaries early. When the score touches 70+ by over six, 200 is suddenly within striking range.

2. Death Over Acceleration

Overs 16 to 20 are the goldmine. Batsmen like Nicholas Pooran or Tim David explode here. A typical death over from an in-form team can fetch 15–20 runs — do that four times, and that’s 80 in the last quarter alone.

3. Six-Hitting Frequency

The modern IPL lineup doesn’t just look to score — it looks to clear the ropes. In matches featuring the highest IPL target, teams often hit 18–24 sixes. That’s more than 100 runs from just boundaries.

4. Flat Pitches and Small Grounds

Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, the Kotla in Delhi, and the new Indore venue offer little help to bowlers. The ball comes on, the boundaries are tiny, and top edges still go 70 meters.

Real Examples

• RCB’s 263/5 (2013): Chris Gayle’s 175* off 66 – 17 sixes, 13 fours. No bowler was spared.
  
• LSG’s 257/5 (2023): Stoinis, Pooran, Mayers — everyone contributed. Total chaos.
  

All these ingredients cook up what we now call the highest target in IPL history — an ever-rising number that keeps bowlers awake and fans obsessed.

Teams Most Frequently Involved in Highest IPL Targets

Let’s not beat around the bush — some franchises are just built differently. Either they keep racking up mountains of runs or they’re stuck trying to climb them. Whether they’re smashing 250 or scrambling to catch it, these sides are always in the thick of big-score blockbusters.

Here’s a quick look at the teams that keep turning IPL matches into run-fests:

Teams Most Frequently Linked to the Highest IPL Targets:

1. Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB)
   
   • Highest team total ever (263/5).
     
   • Regularly posts and concedes 200+ totals.
     
   • Home ground? Chinnaswamy — where bowlers suffer and sixes fly.
     
2. Chennai Super Kings (CSK)
   
   • Known for hammering huge scores at Chepauk and Wankhede.
     
   • MS Dhoni’s side knows when to explode — and how to defend it.
     
3. Lucknow Super Giants (LSG)
   
   • New boys, but already breaking records.
     
   • 257/5 vs Punjab Kings in 2023 made heads turn.
     
4. Punjab Kings (PBKS)
   
   • The unlucky charm — always caught in matches where 200+ totals are either posted or chased.
     
   • Top order has firepower, but their bowling often turns the game into a slogfest.
     
5. Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR)
   
   • Andre Russell. That’s it. That’s the tweet.
     
   • They’ve both chased and conceded monster scores over the years.
     

RCB, for example, has been involved in 7 matches where the IPL highest run target crossed the 220 mark — either scoring or receiving. Meanwhile, CSK has posted four 240+ innings, which says a lot about their ability to dominate from the front. LSG might be new, but they’ve made a habit of lighting up the scoreboard already.

Match to Remember: The Day IPL Rewrote History

RCB vs Pune Warriors — 2013

Some numbers just don’t fade. And 263/5 is one of them.

April 23rd, 2013. M. Chinnaswamy Stadium. The wicket was flat, the boundary ropes pulled in. But no one — not even the diehards — saw this coming.

Chris Gayle walked out, chewing gum like it was just another day. By the end of his knock, the stadium was in disbelief, and bowlers looked shell-shocked. 175 off 66 balls*, the fastest T20 hundred ever, and arguably the most brutal innings in IPL history.

The hits weren’t just boundaries. They were missiles. 17 sixes. 13 fours. Every bowler from Pune Warriors was reduced to bowling machines.

Commentators couldn’t keep up:

“We are watching the impossible. This isn’t cricket — this is destruction.” – Danny Morrison

RCB didn’t stop at 175. They kept piling on — AB de Villiers joined the party, and Pune’s shoulders dropped. By the 20th over, 263/5 was on the board. That number became legend.

It didn’t just break records. It broke spirits. Pune didn’t even try chasing — they folded for 133. The net run rate got an enormous boost for RCB. And Gayle? He walked off, grinning, like it was just another Tuesday.

This is the day the highest target in IPL history stopped being a number and started being a myth.

Will We Ever See a 300-Run Target?

Short answer? Yes.

Long answer? It’s only a matter of when.

The signs are all there. More sixes are being hit every season. Grounds are smaller, boundaries shorter, bats bigger. Powerplay totals are touching 80. Teams are scoring 250+ without breaking a sweat.

Openers are no longer building innings — they’re detonating them. Middle orders are packed with all-rounders who can clear 100 meters with ease. Bowlers have become cannon fodder, and field restrictions don’t help.

Let’s do the math:

• Powerplay (Overs 1–6): 75–80 runs
  
• Middle overs (7–15): 90–100 runs (if wickets remain)
  
• Death overs (16–20): 80+ runs (especially if Pollard/Russell/Pooran-type batters are in)
  

All this adds up. Teams are flirting with 270. One good day — one perfect storm — and 300 is absolutely on the cards.

When it does happen, the IPL won’t be shocked. It’s been heading there for a while.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is the highest target in IPL history?
The highest target ever set in an IPL match is 263 runs, posted by Royal Challengers Bangalore against Pune Warriors in 2013.

2. Which team scored the highest run target in IPL?
RCB holds the record with 263/5. They also appear multiple times in the top 10 for IPL highest run targets.

3. What is the highest IPL run chase ever completed?
Rajasthan Royals chased down 224 against Punjab Kings in 2020 — the biggest successful chase in IPL history.

4. Who are the top players in high-scoring IPL matches?
Names like Chris Gayle, KL Rahul, AB de Villiers, Andre Russell, Nicholas Pooran, and Marcus Stoinis consistently dominate matches involving massive totals.

5. Which ground has seen the most 200+ IPL targets?
M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru. With short boundaries and altitude helping the ball travel, it’s often the setting for high-scoring thrillers.