Rahul leads IPL 2026 Orange Cap race, Archer climbs to No. 2 on Purple Cap table
This is what things look like on the Orange and Purple Cap tables after another high-scoring game in IPL 2026
ESPNcricinfo staff
Published: May 2, 2026, 1:30 AM
The IPL 2026 Orange Cap leader has been changing every other day. It did after the Rajasthan Royals (RR) vs Delhi Capitals (DC) game on Friday night too, with a brand-new face at the top of the list, while there was a big update on the Purple Cap table too.
KL Rahul, the DC opener, has had three single-digit scores this season and an 18. In his five other innings, he has hit 92, 57, 37, 152 not out and, against RR, 75. That has taken his aggregate for the season up to 433 runs and taken him the top spot on the run-scorers’ table.
RR opener Vaibhav Sooryavanshi could well have topped him, having started the game with 400 runs against his name, but scored just 4, and that places him at No. 4, with two Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) batters – Abhishek Sharma (425 runs) and Heinrich Klaasen (414 runs) – between him and Rahul.
Sooryavanshi’s opening partner Yashasvi Jaiswal also faltered in the Friday game, scoring just 6. He is down at No. 10 with 312 runs.
Virat Kohli of Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), Shubman Gill, B Sai Sudharsan and Ishan Kishan, the Gujarat Titans (GT) top three and Prabhsimran Singh of Punjab Kings (PBKS) complete the top ten.
RCB frontman Bhuvneshwar Kumar is the leader of the wicket-takers’ table, the five three-fors he has this season taking him to 17 wickets, but he has a new No. 2, RR’s Jofra Archer, who has been picking up wickets consistently, and now has 15, the same as SRH’s Eshan Malinga, but with a superior economy rate: 8.62 to 9.16. Bhuvneshwar is tops there too: his economy rate of 7.54 is better than anyone else in the top ten.
Anshul Kamboj, the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) quick, has been stuck on 14 wickets for a while, because his team hasn’t played since April 26, but could change things around on Saturday night when he goes up against Mumbai Indians (MI). Also on 14 wickets is GT’s Kagiso Rabada.
