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Improving Pakistan cheer Younus

Pakistan

The Pakistan players demonstrate their team spirit en route to a comprehensive win over Australia in the last of five ODIs

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Pakistan captain Younus Khan believes valuable lessons have been learnt by his side despite the one-day series defeat against Australia.

Pakistan finished off their campaign with an emphatic seven-wicket triumph in Abu Dhabi, but Australia won the series 3-2.

Kamran Akmal, who made an unbeaten 116, combined with Misbah-ul-Haq (76 not out) as Pakistan overhauled Australia's total of 250 for four.

Pakistan have played little international cricket over the last couple of years with teams refusing to tour the country due to safety fears.

But Younus believes playing a top team like Australia will help his young team become better.

"I learnt a lot from playing Australia in this series because they are such a fantastic team," Younus said.

"It's good to watch and learn how they adapt and play under pressure. In every game we try and put them under some pressure, but they always get away.

“But our side is a young team and will learn from this series.

Younus Khan

Younus Khan claims he and his team benefitted from playing one of the best sides in the world

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"They were 80 for one at one stage and were scoring pretty quickly, but then the spinners did the job for us, especially Saeed Ajmal.

"Then we got a couple of good partnerships while batting and the one between Kamran and Misbah sealed victory for us.

"This was a good team effort. We had spoken about rotating the strike and keeping the scoreboard ticking over before we came out to chase.

"Against a team like Australia you have to keep the runs coming. Kamran came up the order and was very useful at the top. He got the runs and steadied the innings and we finished well.

"It's all about commitment and it was there in the Pakistan team this evening."

Australia stand-in skipper Michael Clarke admitted his side were well beaten.

"Pakistan outplayed us in this game," he said. "The wicket played better tonight. With 250 on the board and going by the previous games, we were pretty confident.

"But we still had to do the job with the ball and in the field and I think we probably let ourselves down in the field. It's something we should continue to work on."

Clarke confirmed he would miss Thursday's Twenty20 game in Dubai to fly home for some much-needed rest ahead of the World Twenty20 and Ashes series this summer.

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