Clarke sees positives as Aussies fail to claim win

Nov 26, 2012 |

Tags:

Du Plessis_Clarke_Smith_AP.jpg.crop_display.jpg

Skipper Michael Clarke said Australia are well placed in the run-up to this week's final Perth Test despite having to settle for a draw against South Africa in the second Test Monday.

The Australians spent almost nine hours in the field in Adelaide and bowled a total of 148 overs but could not dismiss the Proteas.

Inspired by Test debutant Faf du Plessis, who ended on 110 not out, they batted out the entire fifth day to finish on 248 for eight.

The first Test in Brisbane was also drawn. Australia must win in Perth to take the series and the world number one ranking from South Africa.

Clarke was reminded of the parallels with Australia's inability to bowl out the last two batsmen, James Anderson and Monty Panesar, when England held on for a famous draw in the first Test of the 2009 Ashes series in Cardiff.

"I like to hope there's a lot of difference to Cardiff. We didn't bowl to numbers 9 and 10 as long as we did in Cardiff," he said.

"It is a great example of how hard a fight Test cricket is. Nothing is a given in this game.

"You have to work your backside off to have success and it is even harder against the number one team in the world.

"We didn't expect them to give us the game today. We knew we would have to fight. It was no different in Brisbane and it will be no different in Perth."

Clarke said Australia would have to be prepared to play their best cricket over five days if they were to win. But he added: "I am confident we will be in a good place come day one of the Perth Test."

Clarke praised his bowlers' "amazing" efforts, despite being one strike bowler down with an injury to paceman James Pattinson for the final innings.

"Losing James hurt us," he said. "I don't want to take anything away from South Africa because they played really well.

"I thought Faf was outstanding on debut to make a hundred under conditions like that under pressure. The wicket played really well.

"We tried everything in our power, we had a red-hot crack. It was unfortunate we didn't get over the line. But we didn't lose the Test, so we can take a lot of positives out of that.

"We have to make sure physically we are as well prepared as we can for a crucial test in Perth."

Post new comment

<form action="/comment/reply/205462" accept-charset="UTF-8" method="post" id="comment-form"> <div><div class="form-item" id="edit-name-wrapper"> <label for="edit-name">Your name: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="60" name="name" id="edit-name" size="30" value="Reader" class="form-text required" /> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-mail-wrapper"> <label for="edit-mail">E-Mail Address: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="64" name="mail" id="edit-mail" size="30" value="" class="form-text required" /> <div class="description">The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.</div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-comment-wrapper"> <label for="edit-comment">Comment: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <textarea cols="60" rows="15" name="comment" id="edit-comment" class="form-textarea resizable required"></textarea> </div> <fieldset class=" collapsible collapsed"><legend>Input format</legend><div class="form-item" id="edit-format-1-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-1"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-1" name="format" value="1" class="form-radio" /> Filtered HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd></li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-format-2-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-2"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-2" name="format" value="2" checked="checked" class="form-radio" /> Full HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> </fieldset> <input type="hidden" name="form_build_id" id="form-09fffc5b1f76130ffe94c0bbb480c950" value="form-09fffc5b1f76130ffe94c0bbb480c950" /> <input type="hidden" name="form_id" id="edit-comment-form" value="comment_form" /> <fieldset class="captcha"><legend>CAPTCHA</legend><div class="description">This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.</div><input type="hidden" name="captcha_sid" id="edit-captcha-sid" value="86365181" /> <input type="hidden" name="captcha_response" id="edit-captcha-response" value="NLPCaptcha" /> <div class="form-item"> <div id="nlpcaptcha_ajax_api_container"><script type="text/javascript"> var NLPOptions = {key:'c4823cf77a2526b0fba265e2af75c1b5'};</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://call.nlpcaptcha.in/js/captcha.js" ></script></div> </div> </fieldset> <span class="btn-left"><span class="btn-right"><input type="submit" name="op" id="edit-submit" value="Save" class="form-submit" /></span></span> </div></form>