A brilliant week at the World Matchplay concludes on Sunday evening when the final of the tournament takes place behind closed doors inside the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes, when Gary Anderson takes on Dimitri Van den Bergh for the second biggest ranking title of the season.
Both these men have shown their best at times in the tournament, but perhaps more importantly they have both held their nerve under stern pressure this week. That should ensure we get a great final to finish off an excellent week of darts.
The Format
Much has changed in the world in recent times but the format of the World Matchplay hasn’t. The event begins with the first round over the best of 19 legs with the second round moving up to the best of 21 legs. The quarter finals take place over the best of 31 legs with the semi-finals the best of 33. The winner will then be determined on the second Sunday of the tournament in a best of 35 leg final. Each match in the tournament has to be won by two clear legs unless each player reach two beyond the scheduled winning number (12-12 in the first round, 13-13 in the second round etc). If that happens the next leg will be a deciding leg.
Day 8 Recap
We were treated to two brilliant semi-finals on Saturday evening, and two different ones too. The first one between Michael Smith and Gary Anderson was fast and furious and went one way and then the other before Anderson got over the line in extra time, coming through 18-16 to book his place in the final. The other semi-final was equally as tight and also swung in both directions before Dimitri Van den Bergh held his nerve to win 17-15.
It was a profitable night for us overall. We went with three bets and while the bet on Michael Smith to beat Gary Anderson failed to land with ‘Bully Boy’ losing a tight one, he did at least bring our second bet in which was for him to hit the most 180s in the contest. The profit was secured when Durrant and Van den Bergh delivered enough of a classic that there were comfortably more than the 29.5 legs line we took the over in.
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Gary Anderson
If you had listened to Gary Anderson after his win over Michael Smith in the semi-final you would have thought he was the man who got beat given his frustrations. That surprised me a little but at the same time I think there was a bit of bluff about it. He averaged 98 over 34 legs and finished pretty well. I suspect the frustration came from the fact that he only hit seven 180s in the match. I’m no fan of such negative thoughts being in a mind however.
One thing Anderson has in his favour here is experience. He has been in many major finals and he has won plenty of them as well. He won this title two years ago in a final that went to extra legs so he knows that even though he isn’t playing to the form he was at his best, that he knows how to get over the line in these big matches. Another positive for the Scot is that his performances have got better as the week has gone on. That is never a bad thing ahead of a final.
Dimitri Van den Bergh
The surprise package of the week has been Dimitri Van den Bergh and he is now the first debutant since James Wade in 2006 to make the final of this tournament. We probably shouldn’t be surprised though because he has always had talent, and having spent the entirety of lockdown living with Peter Wright, clearly the winning mentality of the world champion has rubbed off on him, not to mention the availability of one of the best practice partners anyone could wish for.
Three things have really stood out with the Belgian so far this week. The first of them has been his scoring. He has hit 29 180s and a barrel load of 140s over the course of the week, the second has been his finishing which has been very good and the third and perhaps biggest thing has been the composure he has shown. When you think he is on debut here, he has actually looked more composed and in control of his game the longer the week has gone on when logic would suggest it should be the other way around. He’s a genuine challenger here.
Head to Head
These two have only met twice in the past which is a bit of a surprise. They have only seen each other in one of those matches because one of them was in the PDC Home Tour earlier in the year. Anderson won that match 5-1 but quite what we can read into that I’m not sure. The other match feels more important when they battled out a deciding leg in the semi-final of the Germany leg of the World Series a couple of years ago. Van den Bergh came out on top of that so maybe history weighs slightly on his side even if experience at this stage of major tournaments does not.
Betting
There is a chance Dimitri Van den Bergh can win this final but I’m expecting to see a pretty tight encounter, something similar to that World Series semi-final that they played out a couple of years ago, so you’ve got to think if and when this gets very tight Anderson will just about have the edge to get over the line, especially when you think that he won the final two years ago 21-19 against a Mensur Suljovic who threw everything he had at the Scot.
That makes me think the better bet is for over 31.5 legs where we need 18-14 either way or an even closer match than that and that feels like the way this one could go. Van den Bergh is a couple of points ahead in the tournament averages but the rest of the statistics between the two are of a similar nature, so there is every chance this one could go very deep indeed. I’d marginally favour Anderson to come out on top but over 31.5 legs is my bet.
Tips
Back Over 31.5 legs for a 3/10 stake at 2.10 with William Hill
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