Michael Clarke is not ready to claim a moral victory from the drawn first Test against South Africa at the Gabba despite steering Australia from near oblivion to the verge of an amazing triumph.
Australia recovered from a disastrous score of 3-40 in their first innings - chasing the Proteas' 450 - to a position where arguably only a washed out second day held them back from a miraculous win over the world's number one Test nation.
Clarke, who was sensational with an unbeaten 259, masterminded Australia's early declaration to set South Africa a total of 115 to reach while his bowlers piled on the pressure with a vastly-improved display.
The captain said there were plenty of positives to take out of the performance - but not enough to suggest they hold any sort of psychological edge heading into the second Test in Adelaide next week.
"I want to say yes, but conditions are a lot different," Clarke said.
"At the end of the day, there's no result in this Test match.
"We have to win the series to go back to being the number one Test team in the world, so we've got to do our best to push for a win at every opportunity.
"We just need to make sure we're as well prepared as we were for this Test match but execute better on day one of the Test, whether that's with the bat or the ball."
Clarke praised the character of his men, who climbed up off the canvas after a disastrous day one to give South Africa the fright of their lives.
"The boys deserve a lot of credit for their attitudes more than anything else," he said.
"And our attitude today was spot on with the ball. We were quite aggressive with our approach.
"I think we bowled a lot better today and we just seemed to get a lot better throughout the Test match.
"Unfortunately we didn't get a win but we can certainly use the momentum we take from this game and take it into Adelaide."
Young Victorian paceman James Pattinson was the pick of Australia's bowlers, grabbing three wickets in South Africa's first innings before taking 2-58 on day five.
His ferocious opening spell on Tuesday claimed both Proteas openers and set his team-mates up for a raid on the tourists' middle order, which was missing the injured JP Duminy.
But Clarke was reluctant to lavish the rising star with too much praise.
"I've been very pleased with all the bowlers but I don't want to get too far ahead of ourselves," he said.
"He's played six Test matches. Patto's enjoying getting out there and playing, being on the park.
"I've said for a while we've got plenty of talent - it's now about performance with the ball and guys actually being fit and firing at the right time."
First Posted 14 November, 2012 8:28AM AEST
