he withdrew at an early stage without financial inducement.— Bennett was overlooked for national selection during the 1985–86 season and played in all of New South Wales's 11 Shield matches for the season. In the fourth match of the season, he took 4/56 in the second innings against the touring New Zealand, removing John Wright, John Reid, Bruce Edgar and Jeremy Coney. He then played a prominent role in consecutive Shield victories. Bennett made an unbeaten 55 in a rearguard fightback that took New South Wales to 286, before taking 4/47, helping his state to a 99-run first innings lead over Western Australia. The match was eventually won by 151 runs. He then took 4/38 and 3/32 in an innings win over South Australia. In these two matches, Bennett tied down the opposition; 44% of his overs were maidens and he conceded 1.39 runs per over. Bennett later took 4/71 against Victoria and was prominent in an innings win over Tasmania. He scored an unbeaten 57 and took 3/53 and 2/23. Bennett ended the season with 32 wickets at 27.40 and 300 runs at 33.33. Final domestic seasons During the 1986–87 season, Bennett's bowling waned. In six Shield matches he took only nine wickets at 49.33 with a best of 3/79 against Western Australia. Although his lower-order batting still yielded 190 runs at 31.66, he was dropped in the latter stages of the season and missed New South Wales' victory in the Shield final. He was selected for only one limited-overs match; he had no success, conceding 34 runs from five overs without taking a wicket. Bennett continued playing for NSW until the 1987–88 season. His last season was not a success. Playing in only five of the Sheffield Shield matches because of his lack of productivity, Bennett took only four wickets at 43.50 and scored 33 runs at 5.50, and was dropped for the last time in January. He was not selected in any one-day matches. He finished his first-class career with 1437 runs at 23.95 including four fifties and 157 wickets at 30.92. He served as NSW Assistant Coach from 1991–92 to 1993-94 and as NSW Selector from 1990–91 to 1996–97. Still heavily involved with the St George District Cricket Club, Bennett served as president for a time and the club's talent identification and development program is named the Murray Bennett Pathway. He was known to be selling