Perth, Jan 16 (IANS) David Warner learnt the art of occupying the crease for a long time from West Indies’ veteran Shivnarine Chanderpaul, whose fourth-fastest Test century was also equalled by the explosive Australian opener during the innings and 37 runs win over India in the Perth Test.

Warner, who scored a huge 180 in the first innings, said he learnt the art of playing long innings from Chanderpaul while they were playing for Durham. Warner and Chanderpaul both scored their centuries in 69 balls and have Jack Gregory (67), Adam Gilchrist (57) and Viv Richards (56) ahead.

“I learned this off Chanderpaul when we were at Durham. He (Chanderpaul) batted on the bowling machine for six hours. I said, ‘This is ridiculous, how can you do this?’ And he said, ‘If you’re going to bat for six hours in a game you might as well practise it’,” said Warner.

Warner, who is known for his Twenty20 exploits, said he can’t believe that he has finally become a Test cricketer via the Twenty20 slogfest.

“It’s still weird to me. I’ve done it back to front. Now I have to make the most of the games as they come along,” Warner was quoted as saying by The Herald Sun. “If I’m building an innings it’s going to help me with shot selection and to be a lot more assertive as well.”

Warner has come a long way from a $10,000 contract as a rookie with New South Wales and is now on the verge of breaking into the $1 million a year club. He is noe one of the few cricketer in Cricket Australia (CA) 25-member list to play the three formats of the game.

“I played a couple of one-dayers for NSW and was upgraded to a $30,000 contract, so I quit work to train full-time and I haven’t looked back since,” Warner said.

“When some people turn 18 they want to travel but I had no interest in that,” he said. “I just wanted to work and make it in cricket.”