Team Punjab hold the record for the highest successful run chase in T20 cricket. They chased down a target of 262 against Team Kolkata during an Indian T20 League 2024 match at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata.
The Sam Curran-led Punjab broke the previous record held by the South African cricket team. The Proteas chased down 259 against West Indies in the second T20 international of a three-match series in March 2023.
Bulgarian National Cricket Team hold the record for the third-highest successful run chase in T20 cricket. They chased down a target of 243 against Serbia and finished with 246/4 in 19.4 overs, which is also the second highest score in the second innings of a T20 match.
In December 2016, Otago blazed away to 248/3 courtesy a 46-ball hundred by Hamish Rutherford in a Super Smash match, a domestic Twenty20 cricket competition, against Central Districts at the Pukekura Park in New Plymouth. This is the highest run chase in T20 cricket to this day, but it came in a losing cause.
The score should have been enough. Instead, Sri Lanka batsman Mahela Jayawardene smashed a 48-ball century to keep Central Districts in the hunt. But with eight needed off the final over, Neil Wagner defended the total to help Otago clinch a thriller by one run.
Central Districts scored 248/4 and set the record for the highest run chase in T20 cricket against in 2016.
Interestingly, this record-breaking 497-run match became the highest-aggregated T20 ever.
“I’m sure it’s something everyone will remember for a long time,” Hamish Rutherford said after the match.
In Twenty20 Internationals, the Australian cricket team holds the record for the highest run chase in T20, which they had pulled off to win against New Zealand at Eden Park in Auckland in February 2018.
Having won the toss, New Zealand rode on a blitzkrieg hundred from opener Martin Guptill (105 off 54 balls) and a scintillating fifty by his partner Colin Munro (76 off 33) to post a mammoth total of 243/6 in their quota of 20 overs.
In reply, Australia openers David Warner and D Arcy Short slammed quick-fire fifties to set the tone of the chase. While David Warner hammered 59 runs off just 24 balls, D Arcy Short scored a 44-ball 76 to keep the Aussies in the hunt for the world-record run chase.
With Australia needing 42 from 24 balls, Glenn Maxwell (31 off 14) and Aaron Finch (36 off 14) played a blinder to pull off the highest successful run chase in T20 cricket (245/5), with seven balls to spare.
On this day in 2018:
— ICC (@ICC) February 16, 2020
🔹 New Zealand post 243/6
🔹 Australia chase it down with 7 balls to spare
A world-record T20I chase in Auckland in a match that saw plenty of records shattered 🔥 pic.twitter.com/Y1LRrJpTqc
The Indian cricket team’s highest score in a run chase in T20Is is 244/4 against the West Indies in 2016. India lost the match by 1 run. India’s highest successful run chase in T20 cricket is 211/4 vs Sri Lanka in Chandigarh in 2009, registering the win in 19.1 overs. Yuvraj Singh starred on the day with an unbeaten 60 in just 25 balls.
Highest run chase in T20
| Score | Team | Opposition | Year |
| 262/2 | Punjab (18.4) | Kolkata | 2024 |
| 259/4 |
South Africa (18.5) | West Indies | 2023 |
| 248/4 | Central District (20.0) | Otago | 2016 |
| 246/4 | Bulgaria (19.4) | Serbia | 2022 |
| 245/5 | Australia (18.5) | New Zealand | 2018 |
| 244/4 | India (20.0) | West Indies | 2016 |
| 242/6 | Patriots (18.5) | Tallawahs | 2019 |
| 236/6 | West Indies (19.2) | South Africa | 2015 |
| 233/6 | Sussex (20.0) | Essex | 2022 |
| 232/6 | Peshawar Zalmi (20.0) | Islamabad United | 2021 |
| 231/5 | Bears (20.0) | Northants | 2018 |
| 230/3 | Adelaide Strikers (19.3) | Hobart Hurricanes | 2023 |
| 230/8 | England (19.4) | South Africa | 2016 |
Featured photo: MICHAEL BRADLEY / AFP
