There is an evening session absolutely stacked with talent at the PDC World Darts Championship on Tuesday where a number of big guns all looking to get their hands on the title come out to play inside the Alexandra Palace in London.
We have a former champion on show as well as the World Matchplay winner and a host of other players who have star quality, as well as one of the most popular veterans to play the game in what should be a cracking session of arrers.
Danny Noppert vs Cameron Carolissen
The evening action begins with two men who will be playing their first match of the tournament despite this being a second round tie when former BDO world finalist Danny Noppert takes on the South African qualifier Cameron Carolissen.
That is because Carolissen never had to play his first round match due to Martijn Kleermaker failing his Covid-19 test so he will be making his debut in the tournament here. We don’t know a huge amount about him but we know he wasn’t Devon Petersen’s partner at the World Cup so you’ve got to think he could be there for the taking. Noppert is a more than adequate player who has had a good time of it in the PDC and looks to have a golden chance to set up a third round meeting with either Dave Chisnall or Keegan Brown. Given that we don’t know a huge amount about Carolissen I’m happy to leave this one alone.
Devon Petersen vs Steve Lennon
The second match of the evening sees the South African star Devon Petersen compete as a seed in the tournament for the first time when he goes up against the Irish star Steve Lennon who has already delivered the goods on this stage in the first round.
This should be a good contest. Lennon has the confidence of knowing that he was one of the better performers in the opening round, clocking in with a near 97 average which included consistent scoring. He could brush up on his finishing a little but I expect that to come with less pressure on him here. Petersen should also be confident here because he has the knowledge of knowing he has been one of the best players on the scene in 2020. His scoring can get to insane levels and if he can be anything like adequate on his doubles then he is going to take a good deal of beating over the course of this event.
I think Petersen is a worthy favourite here but his doubling is a little sketchy to be certain that he’ll win. One thing I do expect to see is a lot of 180s. Petersen can be relentless with them but Lennon hit four in his first round win and if he is anything close to that number then the over 8.5 line will be in danger. I don’t see either winning this 3-0 so in a four set match we need one 180 per set from each with one on top. That seems perfectly possible and if it goes into a fifth set we don’t even need that. I’ll take the over here.
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Rob Cross vs Dirk van Duijvenbode
The penultimate match of the night is the one which could well end up being the pick of the second round ties as the former winner of this tournament Rob Cross takes on the World Grand Prix finalist Dirk van Duijvenbode in a very tight looking contest.
Cross has been written off and questioned for the majority of 2020 but he has still made the final of the World Cup and the World Series Finals and has generally performed alright on the floor and the European Tours and it is actually a surprise that he is the outsider in some places. Van Duijvenbode was bubbling under the surface and slowly coming to the fore and then he shot to life in the World Grand Prix when he made the final and has backed it up with a couple of quarter finals since then too which is encouraging. He was impressive in the first round too, taking everything Bradley Brooks threw at him for two sets and then picking him off in the last three.
I suspect Cross will win this but I expect this to go to a deciding set so rather than getting involved in a lottery scenario deep in a decider I’ll take the over 8.5 180s. There is leeway here if I am wrong about a fifth set. I certainly don’t see this being won in straight sets so even in four sets we need one maximum each per set with one on top. These two score heavy enough to reach that target. If they go five sets we don’t even need that sort of average so I expect to see this line covered too.
Dimitri Van den Bergh vs Paul Lim
The final match of the night was expected to be Dimitri Van den Bergh taking on Luke Humphries but the Singapore slinger Paul Lim didn’t read that script and instead it will be the veteran who will face the World Matchplay champion to round off the evening.
Lim did well to overcome Humphries in the first round, surviving a match dart in coming from 2-0 down in the process, but if we take sentiment out of this one then it is hard to see anything but a convincing Van den Bergh win here. The Belgian has really elevated his game on the big stage this year and has been to the quarter final here in the past so he knows what it is all about here at Alexandra Palace. Lim has nothing to lose and in case this is the last chance we get to see him at the World Championship hopefully he performs strongly but nothing stands out in what I expect to be a cruise for DVDB.
Tips
WON – Back D.Petersen vs S.Lennon – Over 8.5 180s for a 3/10 stake at 1.87 with BetVictor
WON – Back R.Cross vs D.van Duijvenbode – Over 8.5 180s for a 3/10 stake at 1.95 with BetVictor
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