Orange Cap flips four times in one dramatic IPL Sunday

A day of extraordinary individual brilliance

The afternoon belonged to KL Rahul, who muscled his way to an unbeaten 152 against Punjab Kings to temporarily seize the top spot. That dominance lasted only hours. By evening, teenage sensation Vaibhav Sooryavanshi had blazed his second century of the tournament against Sunrisers Hyderabad, his jaw-dropping strike rate of 234.87 enough to leapfrog Rahul. Then, under the night lights, Sunrisers opener Abhishek Sharma settled the argument with a match-winning 57 against Rajasthan Royals to claim the cap for himself with 380 runs from eight matches at an average of 54.29 and a strike rate of 212.29.

Where the top five stand now

Sooryavanshi and Rahul are now locked on 357 runs each, but the Rajasthan Royals youngster holds second place by virtue of his superior strike rate. South Africa’s Heinrich Klaasen sits fourth with 349 runs, while Kohli — who entered the day in first — finds himself fifth with 328 runs from seven innings, still averaging a superb 54.67. The day underlined just how thin the margins are at the top of IPL 2026’s batting charts, and how quickly any morning’s leaderboard can look completely unrecognisable by midnight.