'I'm certainly not a frontline spinner' - Clarke

Michael Clarke took 3 for 15, including two wickets off successive deliveries, to give Australia a 2-1 series lead against Pakistan in Abu Dhabi but has said that he will never be more than a part-time spinner.

Clarke top-scored with 66 to lead Australia to 198 before wrecking Pakistan's solid start, reducing them from 95 for 2 to 123 for 5. He and offspinner Nathan Hauritz took 5 for 40 between them while Andrew Symonds chipped in with 1 for 41 as Australia won the third ODI by 27 runs.

Clarke, however, played down his role with the ball. "In conditions that spin I can do an okay job, that part-time job I guess, but I'm certainly not a frontline spinner," Clarke told AAP. "I think Nathan Hauritz led the way with the ball and I thought [Andrew Symonds] did a brilliant job as well. I tried to wait as long as possible before I had to bowl, to be honest.

"It's always good to bowl in conditions like that, when the ball's spinning, obviously it makes it a little bit harder to score. For me it was just about trying to put the ball in a half-decent area and hope some spun and some didn't and fortunately I had a little bit of luck."

While Australia's bowlers set up both victories by dismissing Pakistan cheaply, Clarke said the batmen had to improve. "Nobody's made a hundred yet so I certainly don't think we've performed as well as we'd like with the bat," he said. "But we're backing our own ability, we're working out the most successful way for us individually to play the Pakistani bowlers and we're backing that to the hilt. I think that's all you can do in these conditions."

Australia have the chance to wrap up the series in the fourth ODI at Abu Dhabi on Friday.