The final session of darts of 2020 takes place inside the Alexandra Palace in London on Wednesday evening as the last 16 of the PDC World Darts Championship draws to a close on what should be a dramatic night of arrers.
This tournament came to life in a big way on Tuesday evening with three cracking matches and we should get plenty of drama, tension and excitement in the three offerings that are on show for us over the course of Wednesday night.
Dirk van Duijvenbode vs Glen Durrant
The opening match of the evening offers us up a very appealing contest between the World Grand Prix finalist Dirk van Duijvenbode and the winner of the Premier League in Glen Durrant with a spot in the quarter final the reward for the winner.
To his credit van Duijvenbode has played some lovely stuff in this tournament and a lot of it has come with his back against the way which is exactly what you want to see from a player. Durrant has been way below par by his standards but when the going threatened to get a little tight in the previous round against Danny Baggish, the Teesider came up with the goods to offer up some belief that he is getting back to his best after his run in with Covid-19 earlier in the year.
The head to head between these two makes interesting reading. It is 2-1 to Durrant, all this year, but the one DVD won he did so 6-1 and he missed doubles to win the other two before going down in a deciding leg. I think that is relevant here if I’m honest. Back then Durrant was at the top of his game and van Duijvenbode riding the high of winning his tour card back. Dirk is a lot better now while Durrant has dipped alarmingly. As long as van Duijvenbode hits the key doubles as he has so far this week I think he’ll have enough to come out on top here.
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Gerwyn Price vs Mervyn King
The second match of the night looks like it has the potential to be the pick of them on paper as Gerwyn Price takes on a seemingly rejuvenated Mervyn King in a contest that could very easily be the latest last 16 clash to go all the way.
Price has had to work hard to make it through to this last 16 stage. He was taken the distance by his countryman Jamie Lewis in the second round and then had to outlast Brendan Dolan in a deciding leg in the previous round. He might need to find even more if he is going to see off a Mervyn King who has dumped out Max Hopp and the Grand Slam of Darts champion Jose de Sousa in ruthless fashion, averaging as much as 103.47 in the latter contest. This really could be another of those matches which comes down to who wins the throw in the back room before the match and has the advantage of throwing first in a deciding leg. I guess that makes King value but I’m always slightly wary of expecting King to back up a big showing over this distance. I’ll sit this one out and enjoy what will hopefully be a great contest.
Dave Chisnall vs Dimitri Van den Bergh
In terms of the closeness of ranking of the two players we have saved the best for last on Wednesday evening as the eighth seeded Dave Chisnall takes on the ninth seed Dimitri Van den Bergh for a shot at Michael van Gerwen in the quarter final on Friday night.
Chisnall has seen off two very strong challenges from Keegan Brown and Danny Noppert thus far and faces another in the form of Dimitri Van den Bergh who is yet to drop a set in the competition, albeit against lesser opposition than that which Chisnall has overcome. This has all the hallmarks of being a great game too. They are two of the best in the world, both throw at a similar pace and both can absolutely batter the 60 bed so I’m expecting a classic in keeping with what we saw on Tuesday evening.
The 180 line for this one is 14.5 which feels low to me. Van den Bergh didn’t score like he can against Wattimena but he didn’t have to. He’ll have to score better here while Chisnall slammed in 11 180s in six sets in his third round match against Noppert and he was 2-0 down in that match so he produced under pressure. This one should have at least six sets in it so if Chisnall scores to anything like the same level we should go well over the 14.5 180s but even if he doesn’t DVdB can contribute enough to get us there anyway.
Tips
WON – Back D.van Duijvenbode to beat G.Durrant for a 3/10 stake at 1.80 with BetVictor
Back him here:
WON – Back D.Chisnall vs D.Van den Bergh – Over 14.5 180s for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Betfair
Back it here:
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