d off.Vitori had played for the Zimbabwe A side against Pakistan last month, before heading to Cape Town to fulfill a club contract. Because of this, h

For the first time since 2010 Cooper Cronk will be partnered in the halves for Australia with a New South Welshman with James Maloney to make his Kangaroos debut against Scotland in the Four Nations opener on Friday (6am Saturday AEDT).The 30-year-old Cronulla five-eighth becomes the oldest player since Luke Ricketson to be selected in the green and gold for the first time, with coach Mal Meninga holding Johnathan Thurston back until next weeks clash with New Zealand.It caps off a magnificent year for Maloney, who helped the Sharks win their maiden premiership last month, and rekindles a partnership with Cronk that first came together in 2009 at Melbourne.That day the pair combined to lead the Storm to a 16-14 win over Penrith but the following week after losing to the Wests Tigers Craig Bellamy signed Brett Finch.Maloney played just twice more off the bench for the Storm before moving on to the Warriors and the Sydney Roosters.Im not that close to Jimmy to know why hes moved around so much, but from 2009 to now he is a very different character, Cronk told AAP.Hes done a tremendous job, and I think the thing people may not realise is that Mal just doesnt hand out Australia jerseys for the sake of it.Jimmy is one of the five debutants hes picked and they all thoroughly deserve it.Todd Carney was the last NSW half to pull on an Australian jumper with Cronk and Thurston having a mortgage on the No.6 and No.7 jerseys for almost a decade.Cronk will make his 30th international appearance at the Lightstream Stadium, home of the Tim Sheens-coached Hull KR, and although he turns 33 next month, hes not contemplating representative retirement just yet.Ive never really fathomed or thought about when my end point is with the Australian team, he said.I suppose that is a good sign. I still really enjoy playing and the responsibility that comes with representing Australia and I love being tested at the highest level.As long as that is around I dont see my position changing, providing I am still playing good football.Cronk, who re-signed with Melbourne earlier this year admitted it wasnt a straightforward decision to make, with his partner, Fox Sports presenter Tara Rushton, based in Sydney.Football-wise it was a pretty easy call, he said.Outside of football there are a few other things that come into play and needed to be taken into serious consideration.But as for now, Melbourne is my home and will be the next period of time. Jerseys NFL Wholesale . -- Claudio Bieler hadnt scored since early September, and not from the run of play since mid-July. Cheap Jerseys From China .com) - The game was all punts and field goals before Kodi Whitfields catch. http://www.cheapjerseysfinish.com/ . On Saturday night, the normally free throw-challenged centre did just that. Howard scored 18 of his 25 points in the fourth quarter, including 13 of 19 free throws in a 2 1/2-minute stretch, and the Houston Rockets beat the Denver Nuggets 122-111. Cheap Jerseys Free Shipping . But Bourque, who has missed three games with a lower-body injury, wont be in the lineup when the Habs travel to Buffalo to take on the Sabres on Wednesday. Cheap Authentic Jerseys . Thats about all he can do right now, so hes trying not to think about when he might be able to play again for the Los Angeles Lakers. There was a kind of symmetry to this tri-series, which started and ended with a capitulation by Zimbabwes batsmen. The difference, for captain Graeme Cremer, was that this time around his team made Sri Lanka work much harder for their win. Defending 160, Zimbabwe took a wicket with the first legitimate delivery bowled and Sri Lanka toiled for 38 overs for their six-wicket victory.When we went out there, we said even if they get our score one wicket down, well make it as hard as we can for them, Cremer said. We werent going to go searching for the wickets, but we wanted to put them under pressure and make it the hardest 160 theyve scored. That was our goal.Cremer had Kusal Mendis caught in the deep for 57, while left-arm quick Brian Vitori - who was not originally part of Zimbabwes squad for this series - nipped out three wickets at the top of the order. Vitoris was one of three surprising changes Zimbabwe made to their XI for this match. Malcolm Waller was brought back, without making much impact, but Tarisai Musakanda, the 21-year-old Mid-West Rhinos batsman, sprinted to an eye-catching 36 on debut.We hadnt really put on a big total [previously], so we felt that maybe just changing it up a little bit, and putting up something different to all the innings that Sri Lanka have had might work, coach Heath Streak explained. Musakanda is someone weve been holding back, but we just felt it was the right time. They didnt know much about him, and he showed exactly what hes got.I think hes got a bright future. Im very happy with him. And then Vitori, we picked him for exactly what he showed today. We felt we needed him. (Dhananjaya) De Silva and (Kusal) Perera have been really damaging up front, and we got them both early, so that paid off.Vitori had played for the Zimbabwe A side against Pakistan last month, before heading to Cape Town to fulfill a club contract. Because of this, he was not originally included in Zimbabwes tri-series squad, but had been training with the group since his return from South Africa. He had a contract in Cape Town, and wed wanted him to stay but he had to go down and fulfill that, Streak explained. But he managed to get back here, despite missing out on the Test series. And hes been practising and bowling with us here in the nets with the boys, and giving all our batters a hard time, so we felt that maybe he could do that to the opposition. Cremer conceded that, in hindsight, bowling first might have been Zimbabwes best choice upon winning the toss. The weather forecast for the match hinted at rain, with the afternoon looking particularly iffy. As it turned out, Zimbabwe batted through gloomy low cloud and rain, while Sri Lankas batsmen had the benefit of bright sunshine that dried the pitch and eased batting conditions.In hindsight, we probably could have bowled first, Crremer said.dddddddddddd. But the way it looked this morning, we thought it would only get worse or stay how it was. The wicket was a bit sticky this morning, so it took a lot of turn. But it looked really good to bat out there this afternoon. Its just one of those things. We couldnt predict that.Unpredictable weather aside, Streak suggested that 240 would have been a defendable total on this pitch. It was a wicket that over 600 runs had been scored on recently, Streak said. It was still quite dry, although obviously with a bit of rain, it got a little bit tacky. Despite that, no-one really got out, other than Masakadza, to an unplayable delivery.It wasnt a 300 wicket by any stretch of the imagination. We could have got to 240 or 250 if wed batted a bit more sensibly, and if wed done that it could have been a different story today. Weve got to move on and take the good part of the series with us, and learn from the things that we didnt do so well, and make sure we dont repeat them in the future.Despite Sundays defeat, Cremer was positive about Zimbabwes overall performance through this series. The hosts were able to knock West Indies out of the competition, while batsmen Sikandar Raza and Craig Ervine have found some form, averaging 54.33 and 36.75, respectively, across five innings.Were still trying to find the right combinations, Cremer said. Streaky has just come in [as coach]. I havent been captain for that long. So were trying to find the right XI for the conditions we play in, whether we go away or we play here. A lot of positives. Weve got a lot of young guys coming through. Carl Mumba is a bright prospect. Musakanda of course. PJ Moor is still really young in international cricket, and we know he can play at this level. Raza played really well in a few innings. Its good to see him back in a bit of form. Sean Williams showed signs today that hes starting to get back into it. So were quite excited for the couple of months ahead.Zimbabwe will - hopefully - be starting their domestic season at the beginning of December. Their next scheduled assignment is away, to Sri Lanka, in June, but coach Heath Streak insisted that other fixtures would be added to the calendar in the new year.Weve got some tours that were working on, between now and [Sri Lanka], Streak said. Well definitely have some cricket between now and the time we got to Sri Lanka next year. Guys have got provincial cricket, and well get together as a national squad where opportunity arises. There is a lot of specific stuff that we want to work on and keep improving. Ive spoken about fielding, but there are all sorts of things that we need to put in place. There will be a lot of cricket early next year. ' ' '