The second day of the 2021 Grand Slam of Darts sees the 32 players back on the stage of the middle of their three round robin matches on a day where all of the eight groups will head closer towards a potentially thrilling conclusion.
We saw some great performances on the opening day on Saturday and with the pressure on those who lost to win to stay in the tournament we should be able to add drama and tension to the quality that will be on show on Sunday. As ever on day two we have two sessions of play, beginning with the afternoon.
First Four Matches
As is the tradition in the middle day of group matches, it is the losers from Saturday afternoon facing each other to start off the session of action and two of the younger members of the event are first up when the German player Martin Schindler takes on Nathan Rafferty. When they are done Mervyn King will look to salvage his campaign when he meets Rusty-Jake Rodriguez before James Wade bids to do likewise. He meets a Boris Krcmar for whom absolutely nothing went right on Saturday. The last of these loser matches sees Chris Dobey taking on a Stephen Bunting who lost with a 106.70 average on Saturday.
Special Offer
OPEN AN ACCOUNT WITH 888SPORT AND BET £10 TO GET £30 IN FREE BETS PLUS A £10 CASINO BONUS! PERFECT OFFER TO USE ON THIS TOURNAMENT! CLICK THE IMAGE BELOW TO JOIN. USE CODE 30F. NEW ACCOUNTS ONLY. 18+ T&Cs apply (See image for significant terms). Gamble Aware.
Later Four Matches
It was Ryan Joyce who beat Bunting on Saturday and he’ll look to enhance his position in the standings when he takes on Rowby-John Rodriguez in the first of the four winner matches to round off the afternoon. When they are done our outright selection Rob Cross will look to secure a place in the second round of the tournament. He takes on Jim Williams who overcame Wade on Saturday. The pick of the matches in the afternoon is actually the penultimate clash when Gerwyn Price meets Krzysztof Ratajski in Group A. The afternoon concludes with Jonny Clayton taking on Bradley Brooks.
Betting
I’ll go with a couple of bets over the course of the afternoon with the first of them in the very first match as I like the look of Nathan Rafferty to see off Martin Schindler. All sorts of stats came out on Saturday about the averages of Schindler on the floor on Saturday but we were soon reminded of the difference between floor and stage form. The German never performed at all and pretty much played his way out of the tournament. That certainly wasn’t the case with Rafferty. He almost shocked Gerwyn Price on the opening day and did little wrong in defeat. He averaged 95 and was 4/7 on the doubles in a solid performance. I suspect if he can repeat that here he won’t be far away and he is still far enough under the radar that he can play with some freedom knowing his future on the PDC circuit is already secured.
Later in the afternoon I like Stephen Bunting to beat Chris Dobey. I might have dodged a bullet with Bunting because in the top half of the draw I had to pick between him and Cross for my outright pick. Hopefully I’ve picked right but I’m not going to give up with Bunting, who was so unlucky to lose to Ryan Joyce. He could do with polishing up his finishing but that will come now that he is into the tournament. The positive was that he scored like a dream and if he can keep doing that he’ll go well here. Dobey looked like a man who only got the call up to the tournament at the last minute on Saturday and will need a big improvement both in scoring and finishing to get the job done here. I won’t say the 6-1 lead Dobey has on Bunting in their career head to head isn’t a concern but current form and the fact Dobey wasn’t into the field until late makes me think Bunting can make that head to head a little more respectable here.
Tips
Back N.Rafferty to beat M.Schindler for a 3/10 stake at 2.80 with Coral
Back him here:
Back S.Bunting to beat C.Dobey for a 3/10 stake at 2.00 with William Hill
Back him here:
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2021
