Planet Morton

There's the sound of screeching brakes and a neatly executed u-turn coming from Texas as the moment, as FUNimation have realised what a PR cock-up their planned editing of Dance in the Vampire Bund has turned out to be. Either that, or they've just pulled off a mass trolling of anime fandom. I suspect the former. Read on for the details...

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• Ahem. Shamelessly promotional tweet will follow... #
• So, yesterday's "internet-changing" announcement that Cisco had promised? New router model. Glad I wasn't waiting for something *exciting*. #
• I am a lean, mean retweeting machine. When there's something in it for me, anyway. #

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A change in scenery for the 3rd ODI earlier today, as the sides moved from Guyana to St Vincent - a move that also brought a change in conditions that seems to have knocked Zimbabwe's gameplan for six, at least for today, as the Zimbabwe Collapse™ took over from the Calypso Collapso as the main event of the day. Having won the toss, Prosper Utseya inexplicably decided to put the West Indies in to bat on a pitch that was expected to favour the side batting first. The plan was as before: use Zimbabwe's spin barrage to wrap up the Windies. Today, though, the Windies weren't playing ball - while Zimbabwe were able to keep the lid on the West Indies for most of their innings, even removing dangermen Gayle (33) and Chanderpaul (58) before they could do too much damage, the final ten overs of the Windies innings proved horribly expensive. At 40 overs, the home side were on 153/4; at the close, they'd added a massive 92 runs to reach 245/9 at the close. Zimbabwe were taking regular wickets throughout this period, but that didn't seem to bother the tail-enders, who laid into the bowling with abandon. On a pitch where 220 would have been a decent total, West Indies went beyond to give themselves a good safety margin.

Not that they needed it in the end, as the Zimbabwe Collapse™ kicked in to ruin Zimbabwe's chances. The 3rd-ball dismissal of Vusi Sibanda was the first warning, and while Hamilton Masakadza (35) and Brendan Taylor (19) when on to build a decent 2nd-wicket stand of 51, it was all downhill from there, with a steady stream of wickets - mostly inflicted by Darren Sammy (career-best figures of 4/26) and Kemar Roach (3/28) - seeing Zimbabwe fall to a very poor 104 all-out and in the process posting the lowest ODI score at Arnos Vale ("beating" Pakistan's previous record of 117). That gave the Windies a 2-1 lead in the series and a serious shot in the arm ahead of the next match on Friday, while for Zimbabwe it's back to the tactical drawing board - and hopefully into the nets for the batsmen, who once again have let the side down. Full scorecard below the cut.
West Indies 245/9 (50 overs; Chanderpaul 58, Chigumbura 2/43), Zimbabwe 104 (31.5 overs; Masakadza 35, Sammy 4/26). West Indies win by 141 runs.

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CricInfo's Switch Hit Cricket Show podcast includes a brief segment this week looking at the ongoing West Indies v Zimbabwe series. You can listen right here (skip forward to 27:30 for the Zimbabwe segment).

When there's something strange in your neighbourhood, who're ya gonna call? No, not the Ghostbusters - they went bust years ago. Instead you want the Shibuya Psychic Research Centre, who will send the young and very good-looking Kazuya Shibuya to solve all your paranormal problems. High-school student Mai Taniyama finds herself getting drawn into Kazuya's work when she interrupts an investigation he's carrying out at her school...

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• At S'n'L. Some wee boy managed to separate Emi from her socks and fire them from the air cannon. Tried same with her glasses. ::sigh:: #fb #
• Cisco announcement later today to "forever change the Internet": j.mp/a0SEZA I'll not hold my breath... #
• Tweetie 2 for Mac beta access for #macheist purchasers? Sold! #

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Crunchyroll have signalled a few changes in recent days that may have you rushing to catch certain shows while you still have the chance. First, their Download-to-Own service (originally used for shows like Blassreiter and Linebarrels of Iron) will be closing to new purchases on 31st March 2010, while no further downloads of purchased episodes will be allowed from 1st May 2010 - so if you're looking to own any of the shows offered in this way, get a move on.

CR are quite understandably pushing their premium membership as an alternative, which would be fine if shows added to CR for streaming were always going to be there - except that's not now the case, especially with shows originally produced by Kadokawa. Warnings have appeared on a number of Kadokawa shows in recent days, indicating that they'll be removed from CR 30 days after the debut of the show's final episode - so once again, get them while you can. In both cases, let this be a reminder of the main advantage of physical media...

Uh-oh. Solty Rei has earned itself a tick in the negatives column by carrying on after the main storyline has finished - one of several aspect of this final volume that didn't impress me. That said, we also get a believable end to the main storyline with most loose ends properly tied up, so it's far from being all bad...

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• Spring appears to have sprung - in which case a lunchtime walk would probably be a good idea... #fb #
• Had Emi's hair in bunches for the first time today, now it's long enough. Cuteness overload. #fb #
• Go me. :) Three more years and it'll be a BSc(Hons)... #ou twitpic.com/17eueg #
• If the Matrix ran on Windows XP: j.mp/bcHMxE #

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Fast bowler Kyle Jarvis has been ruled out of the remainder of Zimbabwe's tour of the Caribbean after scans revealed a stress fracture of the lower back.

Jarvis played in Zimbabwe's warm-up match before the first two one-day internationals but struggled with pain in the lower back throughout the first week of the tour which comprises five ODIs.

According to team physiotherapist Amato Machikicho:

"Kyle went for an MRI scan in Guyana during the second match against the West Indies and the stress fracture was clear. There are still several diagnostics to be done so we can't be certain of the extent of the injury or the prognosis, but he will certainly be out of cricket for a minimum of three months and probably longer."

Jarvis, 21, was understandably disappointed but vowed to fight back:

"I'm not the first fast bowler to have this sort of injury and I won't be the last. I know it will take a lot of work to regain fitness but I'm determined to get back to playing international cricket as soon as possible."

[Source: ZC]

The Holy Grail War is turning out to be something more like the occasional Holy Grail Skirmish, as this volume of Fate/stay night focusses more on building alliances and trust than on open confrontation. Nothing wrong with a good bit of political manoeuvring, though...

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• #nowwatching #Wonders of the Solar System (HD). Nothing I didn't already know - I'm an astronomy sucker - but it sure is pretty. #fb #

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• Mifi sure has a lot of blinkenlights. This is a good thing. #

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The pressure was all on the West Indies ahead of the 2nd ODI in Guyana today. Zimbabwe played out of their skins to win the T20 and 1st ODI, and with conditions as Providence again set to favour spin the early indications were that the Windies would have another fight on their hands - and with Zimbabwe winning the toss and opting to bat, the visitors had the chance to set the early running. Unlike the first ODI, though, shaky batting and some decent West Indies bowling made life difficult, starting with the loss of Vusi Sibanda (5) in the first over. The third-wicket partnership of Brendan Taylor (47) and Tatenda Taibu (31) eventually got things going, and while the run-rate was never anything to write home about, that pair and later Greg Lamb (23) and Elton Chigumbura (50) were able to push the side on to 206 before the side were bowled out with one ball remaining. Nikita Miller led the West Indies bowling figures with 4/43.

Prosper Utseya had suggested during the previous match that 240-250 was the target score for the Guyana pitch - that call had proved correct then, and that meant that Zimbabwe were 30 or us runs light this time around. While Zimbabwe's spinners can work miracles when the conditions suit them, there are some tasks beyond even them - and when Windies captain Chris Gayle came out swinging during the early overs if his innings it looked that the home side were going to strut home. The spin quartet of Utseya, Ray Price, Graeme Cremer and Greg Lamb were able to turn the screws, though, restricting the West Indies batsmens' ability to play - at one point, a full 30 overs passed without a boundary being scored as the required run-rate crept towards 7/over, a period where Zimbabwe appeared to be in full control of the match. In the 37th over, though, Gayle decided that he'd had enough of playing the waiting game, and with a mighty six, and a four off the following ball, signalled the beginning of the West Indies' fightback. His new-found aggression proved his undoing in the 42nd, as a swing & miss saw Cremer claim his scalp for an impressive 88, but some of his desire had already rubbed off on partner Narsingh Deonarine (65*) who went on to seal the victory with 13 balls to spare. In truth, Gayle and Deonarine were the only two players to show any capability of dealing with Zimbabwe's "death by spin" approach, and Deonarine was helped in the closing overs by some puzzling bowling decisions by Utseya that played into the West Indies' hands, but between the two of them they were enough to be Zimbabwe's undoing.

And so the sides head to St Vincent with the series ties, and Zimbabwe's chances of pulling ahead again most likely resting on the conditions of the St Vincent pitches. But Zimbabwe but up a hell of a fight here (in truth they probablbly should have won), once again signalling that they're no longer with whipping boys of world cricket. Full scorecard below the cut.
Zimbabwe 206 (49.5 overs; Chigumbura 50, Miller 4/43), West Indies 208/6 (47.5 overs; Gayle 88, Price 2/31). West Indies win by 4 wickets.

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• 3 using Blue Mondays as their hold music. I'm moderately impressed. #
• One of these would be nice, if the idea of fitting it into the MBP myself didn't induce a cold sweat: j.mp/9jTM37 #

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