"It's usually a good batting wicket, which takes some spin on the last day, " he added.
"It's a pretty decent batting wicket, the ball wasn't doing that much and the bowlers had to work hard, " said Gayle.
England, who need to win the Test to regain the Ashes, won the first battle of the day when Ricky Ponting called incorrectly at the toss and Strauss chose to have first use of what looked to be a perfect batting wicket.
"For me it's been an excellent game of cricket over three days and been an excellent cricket wicket and the very fact a young side were able to battle it out on the final day shows that it's been a good batting wicket throughout, " added Smith.
Attempting to charge Rafique, Ganguly succeeded only in flat-batting to mid-wicket.
His innings was made a little easier with the MCG wicket geared towards batting, and an already weakened Victoria attack further destabilised by the loss of Andrew McDonald, who had dismissed Hussey in the first innings.
Brett Lee made early inroads into the Kenyan batting line-up with the wicket of Maurice Ouma, who was caught behind off a textbook away-swinger.
Hamilton showed Watson little respect when he danced down the wicket before cross-batting him over the mid-on boundary in an over that cost 10 runs.
They lose a wicket once per 21.5 batting powerplay balls, England every 14.7 fitting perfectly with the common feeling that they lose two per batting powerplay.
With Australia batting for survival, they lost their third wicket before tea, thanks to a typically brilliant catch by Bravo at midwicket to end Shane Watson's involvement on 48 as he top-edged a pull off Darren Sammy.
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Just as Shane Watson's surprise five-wicket haul had dismantled Pakistan's batting line-up in the first innings, the Aussies and their captain Ricky Ponting were indebted to another occasional bowler second time round.
England badly needed a partnership and Matt Prior, though struggling to time the ball at first, added crucial runs with Paul Collingwood, who hit a six over mid-wicket as 23 came in the two batting powerplay overs.
But the tourists were further frustrated by a final-wicket partnership of 37 between Das, batting at nine after hitting 124 as an opener on the first day, and Shiv Sankar Paul, who took 5-61 on Saturday in England's first innings score of 225.
Tremlett maintained the stranglehold, using his huge 6ft 7in frame to generate awkward bounce and height, making batting an arduous affair for Australia's second-wicket pair.
They have got to be looking at the way they are playing at the moment and seriously worrying about how they are going to fare in this series as a whole unless they sort out their batting against the swinging ball and their fielding behind the wicket.
In addition to his first ball wicket on Sunday he hit a brisk 40, batting at number 11 in the first innings.
However, with a quick, bouncey Waca wicket continuing to reward good bowling and punish poor batting, Mitchell Johnson and Ryan Harris both struck twice to leave England 81-5 at the close of play.
Lamb, who completed his defiant half-century in style by straight driving Ragheb Aga for his seventh boundary, steered his side to their second batting point by adding 36 in 15 overs for the ninth wicket with David Balcombe.
Their batting was a different story and they collapsed after a useful second wicket stand between Leon Romero (33) and skipper Richard Staple (30).
That's possibly because batting relies on reflexes, which diminish with age, but then wicket-keeping also requires good reflexes, and Gilchirst, for example, is still keeping well.
They began on 22-2 but it was not long before batting star Sachin Tendulkar was heading back to the pavilion after edging to wicket-keeper Adam Gilchirst to become Jason Gillespie's first of three scalps in the day.
Strauss said he enjoyed batting with Andrew Flintoff, with whom he added 143 runs for the fifth wicket, after putting on 82 with opening partner Marcus Trescothick.
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Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel, Paul Harris and Lonwabo Tsotsobe all failed to take a single wicket before lunch while Chanderpaul and Bravo played it safe, despite the favourable batting conditions, to eke out only 39 runs in 26 overs.
Despite India's dogged batting performance, Brett Lee shone in the Australia attack, claiming his eighth Test five-wicket haul at the cost of 119 runs, while Mitchell Johnson and Brad Hogg each took two wickets.
Botha scored 42 while wicket-keeper Niall O'Brien hit 72 as the hosts made 222-7 batting first.
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Berg, 43 overnight, helped his side secure a third batting point before partner Murali Kartik (22) edged Ryan ten Doeschate to Foster to end a seventh-wicket stand of 45.
Brad Haddin took over from regular Australia wicket-keeper Adam Gilchrist, who is taking time off for family reasons, and opened the batting but was caught in the deep of Nehra for five.
Another weak batting display from the top order saw the tourists reeling at 79-5 before a 143-run sixth-wicket partnership between Ramdin and Nash ensured England had to bat for a second time.
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