The third round of the PDC World Darts Championship continues with another two sessions of play inside Alexandra Palace in London on Wednesday, beginning in the afternoon as six players look to book a spot in the last 16.
We saw some excellent darts on the resumption of the tournament after Christmas on Tuesday and although the bigger names are being saved for the evening on Wednesday, we have three competitive looking matches to enjoy in the afternoon.
Ryan Searle vs Jose de Sousa
We begin the afternoon with the two men ranked closest together in this part of the World Championship draw as Ryan Searle goes up against Jose de Sousa over the best of seven sets for the right to face the world number one Gerwyn Price in the last 16.
Both these men came through their second round assignments without showing us anything like their best darts. Neither averaged 90 but Searle didn’t need to against Adam Gawlas and while de Sousa probably averaged over that 90 spot for the final three sets which he had to win, overall he wasn’t there which showed how badly he started the match. You sense the man who can find his best darts the quickest will be the one who comes out on top here. I’m on Searle to make the quarter final of this tournament so I’m hoping he can be the one to come through and if pushed I would say he will be because his finishing is more reliable but there isn’t enough between these two to merit another bet.
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Danny Noppert vs Alan Soutar
The second match of the afternoon sees the UK Open champion Danny Noppert looking to make it to the last 16 at the expense of the Scottish thrower Alan Soutar who is looking to reach that stage for the second successive year. Gabriel Clemens awaits the winner at that stage.
Noppert showed that he can win the big tournaments when he took down that UK Open earlier in the year and he looked in fine form when he dispatched David Cameron in the last round with a 95 average and some really heavy scoring. His finishing was good when he needed it to be too. Soutar has come through two rounds of this tournament so far but is yet to average more than 92.29 and you would imagine he’ll need to find another 2-3 points on that if he is going to be competitive here. Soutar averaged that 92 against Daryl Gurney in a 3-0 win in the last round but he won three deciding legs, however had he not hit a 160 finish to win the match with Gurney sat on a double that match could have turned around. I’m expecting Noppert to come through here but he is my outright selection in this half of the draw so I’ll use that as my interest in this one.
Gary Anderson vs Chris Dobey
The final match of the afternoon sees two men who know each other well going at it when Gary Anderson looks to build on a promising showing in the previous round when he takes on Chris Dobey who is due a deep run in an elite tournament like this.
We didn’t really know what to expect from Anderson after a pretty quiet year by his standards but he actually played well against a Madars Razma who challenged him more the longer the match went on. Dobey had a much more comfortable route into this match and scored well but probably won’t have been entirely happy with his performance. These two have met in this tournament before when they played in the last 16 in 2019. Dobey lost that match in a deciding set having averaged more than 100 and hitting 15 180s and I wouldn’t be completely surprised if Dobey plays that well again. The question is whether Anderson will. If he does this could be a cracking contest because neither get up to any shenanigans. I’ve backed Dobey for the bottom quarter so I hope he can come through here but rather than back him to do so I’ll take him to hit more than 7.5 180s. He hit 15 in that match I mentioned against Anderson and is a better player now. He hit five 180s in three sets in the first round and if you think back to the European Championship he broke the record in a best of 19 leg match when he hit 12 of them against Dave Chisnall. He also hit six in 15 legs against de Sousa and eight in 20 legs against Ross Smith in the semi-final. Dobey is a prolific 180 hitter and five or six sets should be more than enough time for him to rack up an eighth 180 here.
Tips
Back C.Dobey – Over 7.5 180s for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Boylesports
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