SYDNEY: Michael Clarke’s recent performances have earned him comparisons to the Aussie great Donald Bradman, which is considered the highest praise that can be bestowed on a batsman.

To have actually outdone the batting master, as Michael Clarke did on Thursday on the Adelaide Oval ground that Bradman called home for much of his career, summoned up special plaudits.

But that is not where it stops for Clarke in this brilliant year for the Australia captain – he is also set to tackle Pakistani batsman Mohammad Yousuf’s 2006 record of most runs in a year.

Yousuf  over took West Indies' Sir Viv Richards' record, which had been unbroken for 30 years, during the third Test between Pakistan and West Indies in Karachi after playing a total of 11 Tests and scoring nine centuries.

With three Tests - one more against South Africa and two against Sri Lanka - remaining before the end of 2012, Clarke could yet break Yousuf's record of 1788 runs in a calendar year.

The Australia captain's scored 230 in the first innings of the second Test against South Africa at the Adelaide Oval, making him the first batsman to score four double centuries in a calendar year.

Clarke has so far scored 1,280 runs in 2012.

That the hosts, who also enjoyed centuries from opener Dave Warner and Mike Hussey on Thursday, were unable to overhaul the 1910 record of most runs scored in Australia in one day (494) was only due to the tourists miserly over rate.

“There is, of course, a record book that can confine him, but it will take much rewriting,” Greg Baum wrote in the Age about Clarke's superb form.