Overview
County Ground is a domestic cricket venue with 413 matches on record between 2007 and 2025. Its schedule is built almost entirely around the Vitality Blast, which accounts for 400 of those fixtures, though the ground has also staged 11 one-day internationals and a pair of T20 internationals. First-innings sides have averaged 175 runs here, with chasing sides averaging 158, figures that place it broadly in the mid-range of English T20 venues rather than at the extremes. The ground is perhaps best characterised by its toss pattern: captains have elected to field first in seven out of every ten matches, and that preference has been at least partially vindicated by a 52% chase success rate across the full dataset.
The competition record spans nearly two decades of white-ball cricket, taking in multiple generations of county cricketers and occasional international visitors. Several county sides have made the ground a regular away fixture, which means the team records here are substantive enough to draw genuine conclusions about how different sides tend to fare.
Pitch and conditions
The powerplay phase averages 51 runs from the first six overs at a cost of only 1.66 wickets, which is a relatively low wicket-loss rate for T20 cricket. Batting sides tend to find some freedom early, and the numbers suggest that top-order partnerships are less frequently disrupted in the opening spell than at many comparable grounds. That could make the powerplay an important window for setting the tempo without risking an early collapse.
Middle overs between seven and fifteen are where totals are primarily assembled. The 74-run average across that phase is the highest of the three phases recorded here, meaning the ground does not produce the dramatic death-overs explosions that define some county venues. The death phase averages just 41 runs, which places it on the lower end for T20 cricket and historically favours disciplined bowling with good variation in pace and length. Sides posting above 175 have generally done so by maximising the middle phase rather than relying on a late flourish.
The toss data is one of the more telling features of the ground. A 70% field-first rate is pronounced, and while the 52% chase success rate confirms there is something in the preference, the margin is narrow enough that batting first and posting a big total remains a viable strategy. The spread between the highest team total (369) and the lowest complete score (58) also signals that pitch conditions can vary substantially, even if the averages suggest a broadly predictable surface.
Historical records
The batting record belongs to LJ Wright, who made 153 not out off 66 balls for Sussex against Essex in the Blast on 25 July 2014. It remains the only score above 150 in any T20 match at the ground and stands well clear of the next best. Imam-ul-Haq's 151 off 131 balls for Pakistan against England on 14 May 2019 is the second-highest individual score, set in a very different tempo to Wright's effort. HT Tector, JM Cox, and JM Clarke have all reached 136 or above here, with Cox's 139 not out off 60 balls for Essex in July 2025 among the most recent additions to the ground's high-score list.
On the bowling side, BW Sanderson's 6 for 8 from 4 overs for Northamptonshire against Worcestershire on 6 June 2025 is the best return the ground has seen. Naveen-ul-Haq (5 for 11 in 2022) and CJ McKay (5 for 11 in 2017) both turned in identically-framed performances, each for Leicestershire and each against Worcestershire, which is a curiosity of the records. KJ Abbott and NA Sowter complete a five-person club of bowlers who have taken five or more wickets in a single Blast innings here.
Who plays here
Worcestershire have appeared in 96 matches at the ground, more than any other side, with Northamptonshire (95), Sussex (90), and Essex (86) not far behind. All four of those sides sit close to a 50% win rate, suggesting the ground does not strongly favour any particular team's style of play. The outliers in the team records are Nottinghamshire, who have won 19 of their 26 matches here (79%), and Middlesex, who have managed only 6 wins from 28 appearances (23%). Gloucestershire's 58% win rate from 56 matches also stands out as a consistently strong return. The ground's fixture list is shaped almost entirely by county cricket's group-stage scheduling, so the visiting sides change year by year depending on divisional alignment, but the core regulars across the dataset give it a recognisably county-cricket character.