Emerging bowler an exciting prospect, says mentor after haul of wickets

The talented Pirate, in his first season at the Warrnambool and District division one club after switching from College in the Hamilton association, snared his maiden five-wicket-haul at WDCA level on Saturday, January 20 on day one against Dennington.

Bensch, backing up his 4-37 last round against Mortlake, snared 5-30 as the Dogs were bundled out for 136. The Pirates are 2-40 at stumps.

"He bowled really well, very impressive. Early on he was great, but the spell after tea was more impressive and the wicket was flatter," Templeton said of his young quick.

"Those three wickets after tea were impressive and broke the partnerships for us and got us going."

Templeton, who was removed close to stumps for 29, said Bensch had some unique traits to his bowling.

"He moves the ball well both ways, anyone that can do that is impressive. Two-day cricket does suit him well.

"When you get the ball moving at a decent pace it's a great sign.

"A lot of teams sat on him and Jimmy (Vandeepeer) in the one-day cricket but today he bowled a couple of spells of seven overs and just broke the game apart for us."

With a tick under 100 runs left to win, Templeton said with in-form batter Aaron Williams to return next week he would back his side to get the points.

"I thought it was a good deck, we probably had a bowl because Aaron Williams was away and had a few moving parts," he said.

"But we get to bat next week (with Aaron back) so it was well worth it. We bowled well all day, they had a few who batted well with good knocks but we'll back ourselves every day of the week.

"Dennington does bowl well, so we won't just turn up next and knock it off quickly, we'll grind it out and won't do anything too risky with 80 overs to bat."

For the Dogs, Harry Rantall (56) showed class and patience through the middle while Jack Lee's cameo of 38 was vital to pushing the score to over 100.