Praise for match-winner’s painful performance

STAND-IN Stratford skipper Archie Walker has praised the bravery of all-rounder Harry Dube who hit his side’s winning runs at the weekend … with a broken hand!

Visitors Solihull Blossomfield were clocking up the runs with Dominic Harding scoring a century before he was caught off Dube’s medium pacers.

That seemed to turn the game only for a mini collapse from the hosts to leave the injured Dube to steer Stratford to victory.

Walker said: “They had a serious arsenal of good batters especially in Dom Harding who got a ton. It was important for us to get him out when we did as he could have gone on to score another 50 or 60 which would have really damaged us late in the game.

“Harry got the wicket and for me he was man of the match because he kept it tight when bowling and had the keeper up which made it difficult for the batman to get the ball away which was what we needed at the end of the innings because it pushed momentum in our favour. That in turn took the pressure of our two openers.

“For me he was the real stand-out bowler but unfortunately he injured himself by putting his body on the line which is something I asked everyone to do. If they want to be at Stratford then they need to show that and put everything into it. That’s just what Harry did and he will probably be out now for a couple of weeks.

“He played a lot of second team cricket last season and that’s what’s so frustrating because he was just starting to find his feet in the first team and I just hope he can get back quickly because he is important to us both batting and bowling. He’s also good in the field.

“I had to change the batting order because of his injury so he came in at ten and he grimaced through it and hit the winning runs for us with a broken bone in his hand.”

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