Clarke relishing leadership role

BRISBANE: Michael Clarke’s rich vein of form continued with another big innings which threatened to give Australia an outside chance of beating South Africa in the first Gabba Test.
Skipper Clarke ripped apart the vaunted Proteas’ bowling to be undefeated on 218 at stumps, batting right through the fourth day, to help push the Australians 37 runs ahead of the world’s best team with a day to play.

It continued an outstanding 2012 for the Australian captain following his unbeaten 329 and 210 against India at home last January. Clarke, 31, is the highest scorer in Tests this year with 1,000 runs at 111.11 prior to this match.

“I’ll say it’s coincidental, I’m trying to get better every day. It’s been to lead the way with the bat,” Clarke said. “I’ve said for a while now, it’s not what you say, it’s what you do and Ricky (Ponting) certainly did that as captain of Australia for a long period of time.”

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