Virat Kohli played a crucial knock against Lucknow Super Giants to lead Royal Challengers Bengaluru to the top of the points table in IPL 2026 on Wednesday, April 15. RCB legend scored 49 runs at M Chinnaswamy Stadium to take the lead in the Orange Cap race after match no. 23.

After scoring a fifty against MI in the last game, Kohli continued his red-hot form with a 49-run knock off 34 balls against LSG. Kohli dons the Orange Cap race with 228 runs in five innings at a strike rate of 158.33.

Virat Kohli leads IPL 2026 Orange Cap race

Virat Kohli surpassed SRH's Heinrich Klaasen and Ishan Kishan to take a lead in the IPL 2026 Orange Cap race. He became the fifth cricketer to reach 200 runs this season. Rajat Patidar also smashed 27 off 13 balls to jump to third place in the scoring charts.

Only 28 runs separate the top five leading run-getters in the IPL 2026 after 23 matches. The 15-year-old Vaibhav Sooryavanshi is also a contender this season with 200 runs in five innings.

  1. Virat Kohli (RCB) - 228 runs in 5 innings
  2. Heinrich Klaasen (SRH) - 224 runs in 5 innings
  3. Rajat Patidar (RCB) - 222 runs in 5 innings
  4. Ishan Kishan (SRH) - 213 runs in 5 innings
  5. Vaibhav Sooryavanshi (RR) - 200 runs in 5 innings

Prince Yadav enters IPL 2026 Purple Cap race

Prince Yadav was the only positive for Lucknow Super Giants on Wednesday. The young right-arm pacer took 3 wickets for 32 to enter the IPL 2026 Purple Cap race. Prince is third in the bowling chart with 9 wickets in 5 innings and is only one wicket behind the leader, Prasidh Krishna and Anshul Kamboj.

  1. Prasidh Krishna (GT) - 10 wickets in 4 innings
  2. Anshul Kamboj (CSK) - 10 wickets in 5 innings
  3. Prince Yadav (LSG) - 9 wickets in 5 innings
  4. Ravi Bishnoi (RR) - 9 wickets in 5 innings
  5. Jofra Archer (RR) - 7 wickets in 5 innings

Meanwhile, Rajat Patidar

Also read: Why is Kohli not fielding in RCB vs LSG game? Here’s the reason