Shane Warne believes Chris Benham is a future Hampshire captain.

Benham struck 158, the highest one-day score by a Hampshire player for a decade, as the Hawks beat the Glamorgan Dragons by 151 runs in the Pro40 play off at the Rose Bowl.

Warne said: "It was a very special innings and I have high hopes for Chris - I've spoken to him about lots of different things and see him as a future captain of the club.

"Hopefully he's learned something from the way I've gone about it for the last three years and hopefully I've got a bit more to give him yet.

"It's all about earning the respect from the group to be the captain and lead Hampshire but he enjoys captaining the second XI, he thinks about the game, he's got a good head on his shoulders and hopefully he'll keep learning."

Benham, 23, has come of age in the second half of the season since making his first-class debut for the county two years ago.

Warne continued: "Benny didn't start off the way he'd have liked in the championship but it's quite hard when you first come into the side.

"I think we've got an environment that makes new guys comfortable but for their own piece of mind they need to perform a few times so they know they can perform at this level because county cricket is quite strong.

"Benny has all the talent in the world, it's just been a matter of shot selection and execution and against Glamorgan he showed what he's capable of.

"He's more aggressive, he backs himself and has improved his body language."

Benham's 158 accounted for 59.62 per cent of the Hawks' 265 and woeful Glmaorgan were bowled out for just 114 with 14.4 overs to spare in reply.

Warne added: "One of our goals at the start of the year was to reach the first division because we didn't do ourselves justice last year, when relegation hurt everyone involved with the club.

"But we always play our best one-day cricket in knockout situations so we backed ourselves and did really well."