The evening session of the PDC World Championship sees the fourth round of the tournament drawing to a close and by the end of the night we will know the identity of the eight men who will battle it out in Saturday’s quarter finals.
We’ve already seen Michael van Gerwen and Gary Anderson progress to the last eight stage and on Friday evening the defending champion Rob Cross is among the men looking to join them in the quarter finals on an exciting looking card.
Ryan Searle vs Michael Smith
The evening session begins with a clash of inexperience against experience as Ryan Searle looks for a spot in his first PDC major quarter final when he takes on Michael Smith, who has made his intentions in this tournament extremely clear already.
Searle has done well to make it this far having taken out Mensur Suljovic along the way but he’ll need to raise his game if he is going to stay in the tournament a whole lot longer. The cliché of certain matches being the biggest of a player’s life is a much overused one but this might be the only chance Searle ever has of being four winning sets away from £50,000. Smith looks like he is just getting warmed up in this tournament and the fact he played his third round match on Thursday might be an advantage too.
This might have been a tournament of surprises but I don’t think Searle is good enough to beat Smith over this distance but the handicap is weighted a little too heavily in the favour of the Premier League finalist for me to get involved here. I’ll sit this one out.
Get your money back as a free bet if your first #oddsonthat punt loses and there is a 140+ checkout in the match. Click the image above to bet. 18+ T&Cs apply
Jamie Lewis vs Dave Chisnall
The second match of the night looks an absolute belter on paper as the semi-finalist of last year in Jamie Lewis goes up against a Dave Chisnall who needs a really big run to get himself back among the top eight and the very best in the game ahead of the 2019 campaign.
Both these men have looked in good touch in this tournament so far. Lewis seems to save his best form for the big stage and this one in particular while Chisnall has looked like he has been happy being forgotten about with the big names preferred to him throughout the event so far. He is now one of the more established names left in but still isn’t being spoken about. That might be just the way he likes it though.
We should be in for a really good match here and I like the idea of 180s. Lewis ploughed in 12 in his last win and a feature of his run here last year was the amount of 180s he smashed in. Chisnall is as relentless a 180 scorer as there is so over 15.5 180s looks like a decent punt here.
[the_ad_group id=”3624″]
Rob Cross vs Luke Humphries
The final match of the third round sees the world champion Rob Cross taking on the youngster Luke Humphries who is making the most of his first World Championship and who could completely change his life with a win in this match.
Cross came into this tournament having not had the best year since he won this title but it is like he has continued his form from 12 months ago has he has been excellent so far and if he can repeat his outings in the event so far he is entitled to be tough to beat. Humphries has taken care of Stephen Bunting and Dimitri Van den Bergh in the last two rounds and has been ruthless in both matches. He will need to make full use of all of his chances but he is finally in that spot where he has nothing to lose. He has £35,000 guaranteed and has confirmed the hype behind him. He can give this a real good go.
Whether Humphries wins or not remains to be seen but he has the tools to live with Cross and keep him honest. I’m a little surprise that the +2.5 sets is as attractive a price as it is but I won’t complain. Cross may well win but he’ll have to be in superb form to win this 4-0 or 4-1, or the occasion will need to get to Humphries but there has been no sign of that. It is the youngster with the start for me.
Tips
Back J.Lewis vs D.Chisnall – Over 15.5 180s for a 4/10 stake at 1.80 with William Hill
Back it here:
Back L.Humphries (+2.5 sets) to beat R.Cross for a 4/10 stake at 1.91 with Betfair
Back him here:
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2018
