Michael Clarke hails Ricky Ponting for his positive pressure on the Australia team. Australia sweep the three-match one-day series in Bangladesh with a 66-run triumph in Mirpur on Wednesday.
Clarke taste his first series victory as captain thanks to Michael Hussey's luminous century and an all-round presentation from Shane Watson (72 runs and two wickets) amidst a run-feast which saw 656 runs scored in total. Bangladesh opener Imrul Kayes led the fightback with a knock of 93, but the home side finished on 295 for six in reply to Australia's 361 for eight.
Ponting, playing his first series after stepping down as captain, opened the innings with Watson in the nonappearance of Brad Haddin and only missed out on a well-earned half-century by three runs.
Clarke paid tribute to his predecessor, saying: "I am lucky that Ponting is in the team.
"As a young captain I need to keep learning. Whenever the team is under force or don't know what to do I can turn to Ricky." On winning his maiden series as full-time captain, Clarke said: "It was a good series; it was an outstanding effort from the boys. We have lots of talent in the team; it is just about using them."
Clarke singled out Watson - who won the man of the series award - for special praise and hoped his run of good form sustained.
"Watson is enjoying his batting and also doing the job with the ball. We hope he can carry on with his purple patch," he said. Losing Captain Shakib Al Hasan praised his batsmen for putting up a fight after being set a daunting target of 362 for victory. "We batted really well. We execute our plans with the bat," Shakib said.
"But we could not bowl well in all the three games. It's a knowledge process and we will learn from it."
The captain said playing Australia was a useful knowledge and will stand his team in good stead for future series.
He added: "Every time you play a bigger team, you learn from them - how they approach the innings when they batted and the areas where they bowled."
Gaji
