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Mentally fresh. Physically fit. Phrases you don’t usually associate with Indian players these days, given the constant madness that passes for their schedule. But this time, it’s different. For the first time after an IPL, India are beginning their season with a break of almost two months. There are no battered bodies crying out for rest, no weary minds cutting practice short. MS Dhoni says “everybody is looking fresh” and there is no major fitness concern going into the first of five ODIs against Sri Lanka in idyllic Hambantota. For the moment, Dhoni wants his players to get used to the large outfield and the “windy” conditions in the wilderness that surrounds the stadium for several kilometres.”Before the start of the series, the good thing is that everybody is looking fresh and the guys are putting in a lot of effort,” Dhoni told reporters at the team hotel, located right on the Indian Ocean shore. “You see a lot more guys going to the gym. Even after the practice session gets over, even if we have had some fitness session, the players are going for a round around the park. Which means they have more energy in them to consistently put in a bit more effort than they could have if the continuous season goes on. So that definitely is a big plus-point for us.”The energy showed today during practice. Even Zaheer Khan, who does not extend himself unless absolutely required to, sprinted in and bowled with decent pace. Dhoni and Virat Kohli took turns in walloping the spinners. The fielding drills were intense and enjoyed at the same time.The break has revitalised this team. Dhoni welcomed it, and contrasted it with what has happened post-IPL during previous seasons. “It is the first break we have literally got in the last six-seven years for such a long period. Of course, in between, the players were missing series because of injuries or some of the senior players opted out of a few series, but that is not complete rest as to you cannot get yourself off cricket completely. You still think about cricket, you still think about the coming series. So it was good to have this break.”In the coming year, the schedule is quite busy. Also we will be playing a lot of Test matches, it is quite tough. You play on for five days in a row. The amount of Tests we are playing, it is good we got such kind of rest, because mentally we are fresh and physically we got some time to work on our fitness level.”India’s fitness will be tested tomorrow on the Hambantota outfield, which despite being pulled in by several metres, still looked big enough to make preventing twos a tough job. Dhoni acknowledged it.”It was quite windy out here. It can be a factor. Even the fielders because it is a very big field and in the way you need to be positioned so that the batsmen don’t push for the twos and the threes, which is quite common in the shorter formats nowadays. What will be a big concern is where you stand. How quick you adapt, as to, if you are fielding on midwicket from one end, and if you move to some other part of the field, then you have to reposition yourself as to whether you need to be seven yards inside or seven yards behind because it is a very strong wind.”India have done what they could in terms of preparation as they begin another long season. “Last few days, we have mixed up our training, not only with the skill sessions, we have involved a lot of fitness sessions also,” Dhoni said. “We have incorporated drills that will enhance our performance on the field. I don’t think fitness should be a real concern. It is just that after a long time, we will be playing a full 50-over game.” We’ll find out tomorrow how rusty India are.

Will Jefferson, the Leicestershire batsman, has been forced to retire from professional cricket after being diagnosed with a rare hip condition which has kept him out of action since May.Jefferson, 32, also played for Essex and Nottinghamshire and reached as far as the England A set up in 2007. Last season he helped Leicestershire to their Friends Life t20 title when he won the semi-final Super Over against Lancashire.”It is with a heavy heart that I have come to this decision, but with the medical advice I have received, it is the right time to move on,” Jefferson said. “Deciding on this day, exactly one year on from such a happy memory, seemed a fitting way to celebrate my career.”I would like to thank the medical team at Leicestershire in particular. Also, everyone involved at the club who has helped make the final leg of my journey be such an enjoyable and ultimately fulfilling one. A special mention must go to the PCA for their continued support and the magnificent job they do.”To my coaches and teammates at Durham University, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, England A and especially Essex in the early days of my career, a big thank you to each and every one of you for contributing to my career, one that I will look back on with enormous pride.”I leave the game with friendships and memories to last a lifetime, and look forward to moving on and starting the next chapter of my life.”In his 12-year playing career, Jefferson scored 7096 first-class runs at 35.83, 3144 List A runs at 34.17 and 1254 Twenty20 runs at an average of 20.96 and a strike rate of 128.48.Leicestershire chief executive Mike Siddall said: “Everybody at Leicestershire is saddened by the news that Will is retiring from the game. None of us will forget the contribution he made to the club winning last year’s FLt20 by his incredible performance in the semi-final super-over. The club will do all it can to help Will with his rehabilitation and we wish him well for the future.”

There must have been days during his exile from England’s dressing room that Kevin Pietersen feared he would never play again a Test innings as magnificent as the one he produced in Mumbai.There must have been days when he feared he would never play another Test innings at all.His response to that suggestion, a strikingly downbeat response for someone who had just produced one of the most memorable innings in Test history, was to shrug that he never looked as far ahead as the next day.”I never know what is going to happen tomorrow,” he said. “I don’t take myself that seriously. I do everything on a day-to-day basis. What will be, will be. I live my life day to day.”It sounded a cop out until one reflected that a lack of forethought had been evident the moment he embarked upon his rebellion against the ECB and ultimately became estranged from much of the England dressing room in the process.Day-to-day living looked the way to go as Pietersen turned 180 degrees on the boundary edge at the Wankhede Stadium to acknowledge the applause of the crowd. India loves his star quality, his individuality and his capacity to entertain.No Englishman, one would wager, comes anywhere near to his popularity. Boris Johnson, in Delhi to drum up trade with India as Mayor of London, could take back billions in trade deals if he was seen out for dinner with Pietersen.Pietersen produces great moments, and revels in them, but he rarely cares to assess them. “It will mean a lot more if we win tomorrow but it was a pretty difficult wicket,” he said. “You knew at some stage a ball had your name on it so to play as well as that was pretty satisfying.””We have come here to learn, we have come here to try to win, and we want to front up to the challenge. The captain asked that of us before the Test.”Along with that captain, Alastair Cook, he reached 22 Test hundreds, equalling the best by any England batsman. The sweep shot – often derided during England’s troubled year – had been well executed by both batsmen during a third-wicket stand of 206 that began to turn the Test in England’s favour.”I think some of the greatest batsmen who have come to India and been successful have been very good sweepers – our coach for one,” he said, recalling Andy Flower’s unbeaten double hundred for Zimbabwe in Nagpur.”It messes around with the lengths that the spinners bowl and it messes around with the fields. It negates that little leg gully that can cause issues if the spinners bowl straight to you. As long as you play it well and pick the right ball it’s fine. If you play it sixth or seventh ball and miss it like I did in Ahmedabad you look like a clown.”I wasn’t playing well at all in Ahmedabad. I didn’t trust my defence as much as I trusted my defence in this Test match and as a batter if you don’t trust your defence you try too many things, you try to force the issue.”So I went and did a lot of hard work as I always do and luckily it had paid off. I like to keep things simple. I just didn’t go into that Test match trusting my defence. I don’t think the warm-up matches going into that Test match tested my defence. It is just about keeping things simple and doing the basics right.”It was not a day for him to celebrate, certainly not in the company of an English media that, in some cases, had been critical of him in a personal way not seen to such an extent since Geoffrey Boycott began his own self-imposed exile from England nearly 40 years earlier. The hurt is not easily forgotten.The much-vaunted reintegration process with the England dressing room has been completed. Perhaps he needs another one with the media.He spoke in more relaxed fashion on ESPN Star Sports to Sourav Ganguly, a former India captain who also had his detractors and who saw him at his lowest moments when they worked alongside each other in a studio in Colombo during World Twenty20 after England refused to pick him.How did it feel to be back? “It feels really good, thanks Sourav,” he said. “I was with you for two weeks through the turmoil but, no, this is great. I’m back playing cricket for England, it’s amazing to get back into the Test scene and to get some runs on a wicket like this and hopefully help us win a Test match, would be magnificent.”Not that he was prepared to claim that the game was already won, with the memory still fresh of England’s collapse to 72 all out against Pakistan in Abu Dhabi in January.”It’s definitely a cliffhanger, for sure,” he said. “You’ve seen the wicket now, it’s spinning, bouncing, from straight, from off-straight. It’s going to be a tough time to go out there and hopefully we don’t have to face too many. We don’t want to have to chase a 100 or 120 on there; we tried that once this year and failed in Abu Dhabi.”

Perhaps unsurprisingly after the side has been rolled for 45 in a Test match, tensions remain apparent at the top of the New Zealand management structure with John Buchanan, the director of cricket, admitting to a difficult relationship with chief executive David White which stemmed from the controversial demotion from the captaincy of Ross Taylor.Buchanan, who joined New Zealand Cricket in April 2011, had not spoken to the media since Taylor was dumped as captain following the Sri Lanka tour and is not in South Africa. He has been monitoring events from Australia before heading back across the Tasman to resume his duties watching domestic cricket and scouting for talent.A host of former New Zealand players, led by the vocal Martin Crowe, have been severely critical of the change of captaincy and the way Taylor, who opted out of the South Africa tour, has been treated. Neither has Buchanan agreed with everything but is hopeful of improving the situation with White.”It can be frosty at times, but he’s got a job to do, as I have,” Buchanan told the . “We certainly don’t always meet eye-to-eye, there’s no doubt about that. But I am very confident he gives me every possible support he can and takes my views and represents them quite candidly to the board.”He also said his relationship with the coach Mike Hesson had “received a bit of a road bump” due to events in Sri Lanka but he has spoken to Hesson since the defeat in Newlands to offer his support”I’ve always let it be know to Mike that I’m available,” he said. “I’m not one that really wants to spend every moment ringing or intruding into the coach’s domain. Having been a coach myself, I know there are good times, and there are times when you need to talk to people.”Buchanan retains the belief that there are players available to turn New Zealand’s fortunes around and that he does not have any second thoughts about his job.”It’s a a fantastic role,” he said. “That’s why I took on the job and I still say that. I still maintain the opportunities in New Zealand Cricket are immense, in terms of what could be achieved in a short period of time – provided we all get on the same page.”

ScorecardFile photo: The century brought Wasim Jaffer within one ton of Ajay Sharma’s record of 31 Ranji centuries•Fotocorp

Wasim Jaffer has been Mumbai’s go-to man for the better part of his 17 seasons with the domestic giants. As a result, it was unusual for the prolific batsman to go into the last game of the league stage of a Ranji Trophy season without a century under his belt. But when Mumbai required Jaffer to deliver, the opening batsman came good with a big hundred to help the hosts attain the first-innings lead against Gujarat in a Group A match at the Dr DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai.Thanks to Jaffer’s 171 and his 213-run partnership with Hiken Shah for the third wicket, Mumbai ended day two at 323 for five, 79 runs ahead of Gujarat’s first-innings total of 244. And the three points that they have in all likelihood ensured for the first-innings lead mean that the 39-times champions are all but assured of a place in the quarter-finals.Gujarat, on the other hand, will hope for Madhya Pradesh to register a come-from-behind victory against Saurashtra in Rajkot in order to progress to the last eight.The day belonged to one man, who is reputed for his stylish batting. With Mumbai starting the day at 24 for 1, they had to avoid early damage. And the manner in which Jaffer started the day would have rung alarm bells for Gujarat’s bowlers. In the second over of the day, Jaffer first flicked left-arm seamer Rush Kalaria through midwicket and then drove him on the on-side for boundaries. In the next over, he dispatched Ishwar Choudhary’s short ball to the midwicket fence with an elegant pull. And then drove Kalaria straight down the ground for his fourth boundary of the morning.Jaffer, who had missed the first three games of the season since he was on pilgrimage, and then missed the Punjab tie due to a close relative’s death, continued his onslaught, despite Kushang Patel getting rid of Aditya Tare. And after completing his fifty off left-arm spinner Rakesh Dhurv, the most successful spinner this season, Jaffer cut loose.Jaffer plundered 15 runs in a Dhurv over, hitting a six and a boundary over mid-on and then pulling the bowler through midwicket. This gave ample time to left-hand Shah to get into his groove. As a result, with Jaffer scoring at will, Shah could afford to play out a lot of dot balls before starting to rotate the strike regularly.Jaffer ended the century drought by steering Kushang Patel to the third-man boundary after lunch. His 30th Ranji hundred came after a year, the first since his twin hundreds against Saurashtra while batting in the middle order last year. The century also brought him within one ton of Ajay Sharma’s record of 31 Ranji centuries.Jaffer was all set to carry on into the third day’s play. But soon after Shah fell short of his fourth century of the season, Jaffer had a lapse in concentration. With Gujarat opting for the second new ball after Mumbai had gained the lead, Jaffer first played an uppish drive off Kalaria straight to Chirag Gandhi, who made a mess of it. The next ball, another lazy drive took the edge of his willow and flew into the slips, where Samit Gohel took an excellent diving catch. It ended Jaffer’s commendable effort, which included 21 boundaries and a six.But by then, Jaffer, who termed the knock as “satisfying, especially since it was important for me to be around till we ensured the lead”, had taken Mumbai to a virtual safety. And the former Mumbai captain had also relieved his team-mates of being under pressure over New Year’s Eve and the New Year’s Day, since the last two days’ play is largely going to be an inconsequential for them.