James Vandepeer stars for Port Fairy against Mortlake

The all-rounder, who has Minor County cricket experience with Cambridgeshire, was promoted to opener and struck 71 in a total of 189 before following up with figures of 4-19 opening the bowling.

Pirates captain-coach Alastair Templeton was delighted to see the Pirates rebound from back-to-back losses, as the competition moved to turf wickets.

He acknowledged Vandepeer's previous batting position of eight was too low and praised the Englishman for his composed innings at the top of the order.

"It was an innings of very few risks really," he told The Standard.

"It was pretty smart, he put away the bad ball and he was happy to absorb the good patches of bowling. So that was real important for us to build that platform to then be able to have a crack in the last 10-15 overs."

Templeton said he expected Vandepeer's pace bowling to suit turf wickets.

"He bowls really good wheels but his areas and that are perfect for turf wickets," he said.

"I just think the first four weeks of hard wickets have made it difficult for any bowlers in the comp. You get on turf yesterday and it's a completely different ball game."

Templeton also lauded Vandepeer's fellow opening bowler Henry Bensch, labelling his seven overs as "terrific".

The teenager paceman bowled extremely tight, taking one wicket and conceding just five runs.

The Port Fairy leader said his side, which sits third after five rounds, still had "a fair bit of work to do" but showed marked improvement from their losses.

"We do think that we're glad that sometimes you've had those losses because it did show us some areas that we needed improvement on," he said.

"Without learning those lessons we might continue to make the same mistakes."