Cricket:Australia captain Michael Clarke urged his team-mates to celebrate their resounding victory over India in the second Test — but insisted they will not be satisfied until they clinch the four-match series.
The hosts produced the most polished performance of Clarke’s brief captaincy at the Sydney Cricket Ground, recording an emphatic innings-and-68-run victory over the tourists late on the fourth day.
It leaves the hosts two up with two to play ahead of next week’s third Test in Perth.
“We want to win the series, simple as that,” said Clarke, whose unbeaten 329 formed the backbone of his side’s victory. “We want to win every Test match we play and we would love to win this series in Perth.
“So we still have a lot to play for, there’s no doubt about that. We’ve won two Test matches, we haven’t won the series yet so there’s still a lot of work to go in and that starts tomorrow.
“We definitely need to enjoy tonight and celebrate together as a team. I think we’ve played some really good cricket as a team, so I’m looking forward to celebrating that first and foremost.”
Asked to reflect on his own match-winning performance in front of his home crowd, Clarke replied: “I can’t get the smile off my face to be honest and I look forward to sitting in that changing room for a few hours yet.
“I’ve always said you’ve got to enjoy your success as a team and tonight is going to be very special for the team firstly and for me personally as well. I’m really stoked with our performance and it’s a wonderful feeling to be able to score that many runs in one innings personally.
“It’s a huge series for this team. It’s the first series I’ve been full-time captain in Australia in front of my home fans and the Australian public so it was important I stood up.”
While his own heroics with the bat as well as centuries for Ricky Ponting and Michael Hussey helped set up the victory, the skipper heaped praise on his in-form bowling attack.
“I think our execution was very good and I’d like to give a lot of credit to our bowlers throughout this Test match,” he said. I thought the way we bowled in the first innings set the Test match up for us and then to be able to take 10 wickets on a really flat wicket out there today they deserve a lot of credit.
“They continue to perform in a lot of different conditions.”