Clarke shoulders responsibility for Oz's poor show in first Test against Pak

Australia cricket team captain Michael Clarke has taken the blame for his side's first Test meltdown on his shoulders, which has been gutted by a failure to fire or review an uncertain dismissal against Pakistan in Dubai.

Australia will resume at 4/59 on Sunday, still pursuing another 379 runs for victory with Chris Rogers and Steve Smith batting on 23 and three respectively.

Clarke conceded that he was out of synch after falling for two and three there despite making a matchwinning, undefeated 161 against South Africa in March. He said that he is really disappointed with his personal performance in this Test match, News.com.au reported.

Clarke, now averaging just 34 against Pakistan over nine Tests, said that he is not looking to blame anybody else or criticise anybody else, adding that he has always loved the challenge of facing spin bowling.

The skipper said that he has been out twice to spin bowling in this Test match, and added that for him right now, personally he needs to contribute more. He said that that's always been his goal as the Australian cricket captain, to make sure he is leading from the front and scoring plenty of runs.

David Warner (groin) and Mitchell Marsh (hamstring) carried injury concerns into this Test but Clarke was without serious match practice on recovery from a hamstring strained making 68 in a one-day loss to Zimbabwe two months ago. Dismissals for 10 and 5 followed against Pakistan A.

Clarke said that he read somewhere the other day that he is short of match practice and that probably sums his form up at the moment.

Australia will have to replicate rival South Africa's grit in Adelaide two years ago batting the final day to prevent a comfortable Pakistan win. Clarke is daring to believe with dogged Rogers and in-form Smith still at the crease.

Clarke said that he doesn't think Australians give up without a fight and that'll be their goal on Sunday, to fight their backsides off. He said that Smith is a very good player of spin bowling, Brad Haddin has a lot of experience, Mitchell Marsh looked good in the first innings and Chris Rogers is fighting, so they would wait and see.

Meanwhile, for the Pakistani side, Younis Khan became the first batsman to make tons in successive innings of a Test, after he fired 106 and 103 against Australia in 40 years.

Moreover, Ahmed Shehzad fired away 131 runs and together they set Australia a mammoth 438 to win. Shehzad and Younis helped build up the massive target before declaring on 286-2, the report added.