Worcestershire Rapids can look forward to another bumper gate against Birmingham Bears in the NatWest T20 Blast opener at a sold out New Road tomorrow evening (5.30pm start).
Alongside when the Australian touring side are in town, these games have tended to draw the largest crowds to New Road, since the launch of T20 in 2003.
The highest Worcestershire CCC T20 home attendance was 5,392 in June 2005 versus Warwickshire Bears (as they were then called).
Home T20 attendances against Warwickshire-Birmingham have averaged 4,185 compared with 11,126 average crowds for the reverse fixture at Edgbaston – including more than 15,000 in 2005.
Worcestershire have an overall T20 record of: Played 139, Won 62, Lost 74, No Result 3.
They have faced Warwickshire-Birmingham and Northamptonshire on 24 occasions – more than any other opponent – but in contrast have never played Kent, Essex, Middlesex or Sussex in the short format of the game.
Worcestershire;s highest T20 total is 227-6 against Northants at Kidderminster in 2007 closely followed by last summer's 225-6 versus Durham at New Road.
Their lowest total was last season's 53 all out in 13.5 overs against Lancashire at Old Trafford and then 86 all out in 19.3 overs against Northants at New Road in 2006.
Worcestershire's largest victory margin, in terms of runs, was the 101 run victory over Glamorgan in 2009.
A total of 78 players have so far represented Worcestershire at T20 cricket.
The numbers of the present coaches/players in appearance order are; Matt Mason (4), Steve Rhodes (9), Daryl Mitchell (25), Moeen Ali (32), Jack Shantry (46), Ben Cox (52), Brett D’Oliveira (59), Joe Leach (64), Ross Whiteley (65), Charlie Morris (66), Ed Barnard (72), Joe Clarke (74), MJ Santner (75), and George Rhodes (77).
Mitchell has made the most T20 appearances for Worcestershire with 122 followed by Shantry (84) and Moeen (81).
In his 84 games, Shantry has only batted 18 times (scoring 76 runs)
Moeen has scored the most T20 runs with 1890 followed by Mitchell (1872), Vikram Solanki (1472) and Graeme Hick (1201).
There have been four T20 century-makers for Worcestershire with Hick achieving the milestone twice.
They are:
127 Tom Kohler-Cadmore v Durham 2016 (New Road)
116* Graeme Hick v Northants 2004 (Luton)
110 Graeme Hick v Northants 2007 (Kidderminster)
105 Ben Smith v Glamorgan 2005 (New Road)
100 Vikram Solanki v Glamorgan 2009 (New Road)
Shantry is Worcestershire's leading T20 wicket-taker with 90 followed by Mitchell(70), Gareth Andrew (56) and Moeen (50).
Mitchell returned the County's best bowling figures in T20 with 5-28 away to Northants in 2015 followed by Joe Leach's 5-33 against Durham at New Road 12 month ago andMoeen Ali's 5-34 versus Northants in 2013.
In terms of the least number of runs conceded in four overs, Aneesh Kapil finished with 3-9 against Northants in 2011.
Moeen has taken the most T20 catches with 54 with Solanki (33) and Alexei Kervezee (29) next in line.
Worcestershire have put together nine century partnerships in T20 and the record for each wicket is:
1st 175 – Solanki & Hick 2007
2nd 149 – Smith & Hick 2005
3rd 101 – Hughes & Cameron 2012
4th 90 – Smith & KadeerAli 2003
5th 101* – Leatherdale & Bichel 2004
6th 77 – Whiteley & Cox 2016
7th 60 – Andrew & Scott 2011
8th 62* – Cox & Henry 2016
9th 34 – Kabir Ali & Pipe 2004
10th 40 – Kabir Ali & Malik 2004
*Thanks to Andrew Thomas, author of Pears 150, for the above information. Copies of Pears 150 are still available to purchase from the Supporters' Association shop at the back of the D'Oliveira Stand priced £28.
