Cricket: Michael Clarke hails Ricky Ponting's influence for Australia

MICHAEL Clarke praised Ricky Ponting for his positive influence on the Australia team after they swept the three-match one-day series in Bangladesh with a 66-run triumph in Mirpur.

Clarke tasted his first series victory as captain thanks to Michael Hussey's brilliant century and an all-round performance from Shane Watson (72 runs and two wickets) amidst a run-feast which saw 656 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 imposing 361 for eight.

Ponting, playing his first series after stepping down as captain, opened the innings with Watson in the absence of Brad Haddin and only missed out on a well-deserved 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 pressure or don't know what to do, I can turn to Ricky."

Clarke singled out Watson - who won the man of the series award - for special praise and hoped his run of good form continued.

"Watson is enjoying his batting and also doing the job with the ball. We hope he can continue with his purple patch," he said.

Losing captain Shakib Al Hasan praised his batsmen for putting up a fight after being set that daunting target of 362 for victory.

"We batted really well. We executed our plans with the bat," Shakib said. "But we could not bowl well in all the three games. It's a learning process and we will learn from it."

The captain said playing Australia was a useful experience 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 approached the innings when they batted and the areas where they bowled."