Planet Morton

The weather denied Midwest Rhinos the chance of achieving the victory they deserved at Harare Sports Club today. At the start of the day a draw had looked very likely, even if the rain kept away, but Mashonaland Eagles approached the day with such a negative attitude that they played into the hands of the visitors, who bowled them out soon after lunch for 165, with Mike Chinouya bowling superbly to take five wickets. But Rhinos were scarcely able to start the chase before the weather struck yet again.

Eagles, who resumed on 82 for two wickets overnight, immediately made it quite clear that, much as they needed the six points for victory to keep up with Matabeleland Tuskers, they were intent on a draw and were not interested in quick runs to try to put pressure on Rhinos in the fourth innings. There was no run in the first twelve minutes, and then Michael Thornely, trying to shoulder arms, edged a catch to the keeper off Mike Chinouya, departing for 32. His overnight partner Ryan Bishop quickly followed, also caught at the wicket off Chinouya, driving outside the off stump for 33, and the score had declined to 89 for four.

The captain, Sikandar Raza, forsook his natural game and dropped anchor, but at the other end there was s steady decline of wickets with little aggressive intent, until the seventh wicket went down for 126. Nathan Waller then came in and played some positive strokes, running up 16 off 22 balls before running himself out looking for an unlikely single. At lunch the score was 161 for eight and Rhinos appeared to have a significant advantage – if the rain kept off.

Raza, 22 off 70 balls at lunch, decided afterwards that with only two uncertain wickets left, he should open out. He hit a superb straight drive for four, but then skied a catch to midwicket for 26; the batsmen crossed and Douglas Hondo was caught at slip off the next delivery for 5, the team being all out for 165. Chinouya deserved his reward of five wickets for 45 runs. Rhinos were set 161 to win in just under two sessions.

The pitch, rather uneven and cracked, helped the bowlers, though not extravagantly, but the greatest threat to Rhinos was the possibility of rain, which had cut short play on each of the first three days, and that would certainly be on their minds. Vusi Sibanda and Steve Marillier gave Mid-West Rhinos a brisk start until Sibanda was out lbw for the second time in the match for the folly of padding up and attempting no stroke to Garwe, for 9.

The skies now began to darken and Eagles looked for ways to waste time. The batsmen for their part seemed to adopt the 'que sera sera' attitude and made no great effort to speed things up. The umpires to their credit for once kept the players on the field for as long as possible, but when a drizzle started in addition to the bad light they had to go. The score was 34 for one off ten overs. Almost inevitably, the drizzle became heavy rain and it was obvious that Rhinos would be denied the victory they deserved. The draw ends their last realistic hope of winning the Logan Cup this season. Full scorecard below the cut.
Eagles 207 (92.3 overs; Bishop 44, Muzhange 4/61) & 165 (69.5 overs; Bishop 33, Chinouya 5/45), Rhinos 212 (61.5 overs; Ballance 101*, Hondo 4/40) & 34/1 (10 overs; Marillier 12*, Garwe 1/13). Match drawn.
[Match report via ZC]

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The idea behind Hidamari Sketch is simple enough - cute girls doing cute things, with not a hell of a lot of plot to get in the way. Which sounds like just the sort of thing to unwind to, but somehow it just didn't grab me...

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Picture the scene: you've recently been orphaned, your extended family doesn't want to take you in, and you're left with a choice between living in a tent, or with a family with a rather unusual curse.  What do you do?  If you're Tohru Honda, you choose the family with the curse - which of course brings some unexpected changes to her life, as she comes to term with the good and bad of the Sohma family...

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When Madoka Kyono returns to the beach after rescuing a girl from drowning, she finds her school uniform missing. It's later returned to her by a strange girl who she runs into several more times over the coming days. Her name is Lan, and she eventually asks Madoka to pilot a robotic aircraft known as an Ovid at an offshore base. As Madoka touches the Ovid and experiences a flashback of sorts, an enemy Ovid from outer space appears and attacks the base, forcing Lan to reveal her true identity: she's an alien sent to protect Madoka and the Ovid.


Here's something unusual: "Chief Director" on Lagrange, Tatsuo Sato (of Nadesico fame), is also Director on Bodacious Space Pirates. Quite what the difference between 'Director' and 'Chief Director' is, I'm not sure (Toshimasa Suzuki is credited as Lagrange's director), but Sato's dual roles gives an interesting point for comparison: Bodacious Space Pirates has spent its first three episodes slowly and carefully developing its cast and world; Lagrange takes the opposite approach of dropping its heroine straight into the shit, armed with an instinctive knowledge of everything she needs to know, and lets you work the rest out yourself. Both approaches have their fans - BSP's world-building seems to bore as many people as it impresses, while Lagrange's approach drops you straight into the action but with questions unanswered left, right and centre, and mileage seems to vary widely on which is the "best".

It's an unfair comparison, though, as they're not quite the same beasts. Lagrange is going for a quick action fix with a limited amount of fanservice (what other purpose could Lan's "Wan" serve?), without the need to go into a lot of depth, and I suspect the truth behind the ability of Madoka and her comrades to instinctively pilot the Ovids will come out eventually anyway. There's a certain air of the mysterious about the Ovids and Lan anyway, and explaining too much up-front would take away from that.

THE GOOD: Visually attractive, upbeat, fast-paced. It's all very positive to start with (in feel-good terms, rather than quality). Although when a lead character is called Madoka these days, I worry what they're about to put her through.

THE BAD: Madoka's genkiness is overbearing, Lan's reticence is old, everything just seems to be a bit too convenient. It's not what you could call top-class storytelling.

A lot of things still out for the jury to decide on, then, but I did find myself enjoying Lagrange. I do hope it starts to fill in the blanks sooner rather than later, though...

Issei Hyodo's high-school life hasn't been quite what he'd hoped: he'd enrolled in a formerly all-girls academy in the hope of forming a little harem around himself, but nearly 2 years later he's still depressingly single. But good fortune arrive in the form of Amano Yuma, who's been watching him from afar and wants to be his girlfriend - but, on their first date, she turns into a devil and stabs him in the stomach. Luckily, he's saved by flame-haired Rias Gremory, the buxom president of the school's Occult Research Club. Which is when things really start to get weird...


Right. Off the bat: I was expecting to hate this, as the pre-season "hype" for it was not good. It's publicity also rubbed me up the wrong way, with talk of "normal, perverted boy" and "formerly all-girls school" invoking epic eyeroll before I ever got to see it. And then Funico picked it up for simulcast, honour demanded I at least check it out, and, y'know, it really isn't all that bad. With certain provisos.

Explanation. I was talking about fanservice on Twitter before I got to the series: specifically, how fanservice does not equal quality - but that fanservice can, occasionally, make up for quality. Highschool DxD falls firmly into that category. There is a story here that could even come into play in a big way - the three-way war between devils, fallen angels, and angels of the more heavenly variety, and how Issei's "Sacred Gear" could have an effect on that - but for now, it's all about the t&a. Which is fine - it's done in a visually appealing way, and since I appreciate a good dose of gratuitous fanservice from time to time (and this is the only fanservice show that I've picked up so far this season), it works for me. I hope it'll kick into story mode before too long, because the setup for that is clearly there but, y'know: I'll probably stick with it anyway.

THE GOOD: If you enjoy t&a shows, this should be right up your alley. It's heavy on the fanservice, but not in an entirely tasteless way.

THE BAD: If you don't enjoy t&a shows, there's not much else here (so far) to give you any sort of reason to watch it.

It's just a shame the Funico stream isn't the unedited version, but you can't have everything. In the "mindless fun" category, it's good enough to keep an eye on.

Rocks' woeful performances in the Logan Cup this season have already had some people question their place in the current setup - most notably in one of ZC's own recent match reports - and this week's double collapse against Tuskers won't help them silence any critics. Rocks tumbled to 83 in their first innings, with Glenn Querl (5/28) leading the carnage on that occasion, but Rocks' bowlers managed to extract a measure of revenge when they came to bowl themselves - but for the efforts of Gavin Ewing (53) and Richard Jones (62) Tuskers wouldn't have done much better - but their final total of 177 eventually proved to be good enough on the day. Tendai Chisoro and Tafadzwa Kamungozi took 3 wickets apiece to lead the Rocks' bowling figures.

Come their second knock, Rocks at least managed to outscore their first innings, but being bowled out for 125 they left Tuskers chasing a target of just 32 runs to win, which they reached without loss to secure a 10 wicket win. Full scorecard below the cut.
Rocks 83 (41 overs; Maunze 41, Querl 5/28) & 125 (53.5 overs; Maunze 43, Ncube 7/35), Tuskers 177 (61.3 overs; Jones 62, Kamungozi 3/19) & 36/0 (9.1 overs; Duffin 26*, Horton 9*). Matabeleland Tuskers win by 10 wickets.

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Eagles suffered the intervention of rain in their run-chase against Rhinos in the other Pro50 match of the weekend, but it came too late to save Rhinos, with Eagles just managing to complete the 20 overs required to ensure a result. Rhinos had posted 189 earlier, with their top order suffering an uncharacteristic collapse before Roland Benade (67), Nyasha Mayavo (38) and Simon Mugava (31) dug in in the lower order to bring some respectability to the score. Trevor Garwe and Nathan Waller did the damage for Eagles, taking 3 wickets apiece. Eagles openers Cephas Zhuwao (58) and Simbarashe Gupo (30) led Eagles reply, with both falling shortly before the rain intervened - but with the Duckworth-Lewis calculations setting Eagles a target of 61, they were well ahead and easily took the points. Full scorecard below the cut.
Rhinos 189/9 (50/50 overs; Benade 67, Garwe 3/24) ,Eagles 102/2 (20/20 overs; Zhuwao 58, Muzhange 1/34). Mashonaland Eagles win by 42 runs (D/L method).

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Tuskers eased to an 8-wicket win over the Southern Rocks in the latest round of Pro50 matches, although it wasn't enough to lift them off the bottom of the tournament table. Put into bat, Rocks scored 123 before being bowled out in the 40th over - a performance more akin to the woeful form they've had in the Logan Cup this season, and far short of a competitive total. Tendai Chisoro top-scored with 25, while the wickets were shared around the Tuskers bowlers, with Gavin Ewing's 3/24 being the best of the bunch. Tuskers lost two wickets of their own while chasing down the target, but the result was never really in doubt, with Tuskers securing the points in the 31st over. Full scorecard below the cut.
Rocks 123 (39.2 overs; Chisoro 25, Ewing 3/24), Tuskers 127/2 (30.4 overs; Ewing 49*, Masvaure 1/6). Matabeleland Tuskers win by 8 wickets.

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Dear Japan: Please come up with a better way of signifying second seasons than easily-missed punctuation marks. kthkbai. Wagnaria'!! (note the apostrophe, that's the important marker here) returns for another season of workplace based antics, and it seems that someone's rather keen to track down Yamada...

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Going into the autumn season, Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere was probably one of my most anticipated new shows. Reliance on a backstory that the anime barely touched upon sadly leaves it a confusing mess, though...

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As usual, the 13-a-side tour match between Zimbabweand and New Zealand XI turned into a bit of practice, mostly for the hosts, before petering out to a draw. NZ XI got off to a shaky start in their first innings, losing two early wickets for 6 runs before the middle order settled and pushed on to 272/7 before declaring; while Zimbabwean's reply, which saw them reach 329 before being bowled out, will have done Regis Chakabva's chances of selection for the Test match no harm - he top-scored with an unbeaten 89. NZ XI seemed to get the measure of the Zimbabwean bowlers in the second innings, though, with only one wicket falling (Bracewell, bowled by Cremer for 26). Four others retired, to see NZ XI reach 274/5 at the close of play, securing the draw. After a good start on the first day, the Zimbabwean camp should be worried by their inability to make breakthroughs in the 2nd innings, and with the one-off Test starting on Thursday, there's not much time to work out the problem. Full scorecard below the cut.
New Zealand XI 272/7d (73.5 overs; Watling 84, S Masakadza 2/36) & 274/5 (62 overs; van Wyk 61, Cremer 1/56), Zimbabweans 329 (107 overs; Chakabva 87*, Wagner 3/86). Match drawn.

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You can forgive a great many things in a series that doesn't take itself too seriously. You could sit and poke holes in Star Driver and the story of Galactic Pretty-Boy Takuto Tsunashi all day, but it's clearly having so much fun doing what it does that that would just be rude...

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