The second round of The Masters takes place on Saturday when the top eight players in the world enter the fray on what should be an excellent day of darts inside the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes.
We have two sessions of play on Saturday with players ranked 5-8 in the world on show in the afternoon and the top four coming out to play in the evening. We are up to the best of 19 legs too which should see the quality rise.
Afternoon Session
We begin the afternoon with what should be a decent contest as the UK Open champion Danny Noppert looks to strengthen his Premier League claims when he goes up against the World Championship quarter finalist Stephen Bunting. When they are done two former world champions meet on the big stage when Rob Cross takes on Gary Anderson. The penultimate match of the afternoon sees the former winner of this event, Jonny Clayton, facing off against James Wade in potentially the pick of the afternoon matches. We conclude the session with Luke Humphries going up against Chris Dobey.
Evening Session
There are world champions everywhere you look on Saturday evening and the first of them to take to the stage is Gerwyn Price. He goes up against Dirk van Duijvenbode in what could be a match full of energy. When they are done the winner of the World Series event last week, Peter Wright, goes up against the finalist here a year ago in Dave Chisnall. The penultimate match of the evening will see Michael Smith introduced as the world champion and world number one in the UK for the first time when he takes on the European champion Ross Smith before a really good day of darts concludes with Michael van Gerwen facing off against Jose de Sousa.
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Betting
Three odds against shots catch my fancy on Saturday with the first of them coming in the opening match of the day where I fancy Stephen Bunting might be a little overpriced to see off Danny Noppert, who finished 2022 in quiet fashion in terms of averages and performances and who plays his first match of 2023 here. Bunting finished the year with a very positive World Championship and was very good in seeing off Nathan Aspinall on Friday night with some heavy scoring and decent finishing. Bunting is perfectly capable of maintaining his form and if he catches Noppert a little cold here then he will have every chance. There isn’t a huge amount between these two if both play their best darts so I’ll go with Bunting here.
Gary Anderson looked in excellent touch on Saturday afternoon and he now gets a shot at Rob Cross who he holds an 11-3 career lead against. This could well be a match which decides a Premier League spot and if Anderson is a little tidier on his doubles than he was against Dimitri Van den Bergh then he is going to have every chance of coming through here. Cross has admitted in the lead up to this event that it means nothing to him and he has only won two matches in five years on this stage and has averaged in the 80s at various times. He clearly takes some time off at the beginning of the year but he does have the luxury this time around of having played a stage event in the Nordic Masters last week which might serve him well. Nevertheless, Anderson performs well against Cross, did plenty right against Van den Bergh on Friday evening and usually as he goes further in an event his doubling gets better. He feels a big price here.
Finally, if you saw Gerwyn Price’s Instagram story on Friday you’ll know he isn’t in the greatest health and that would look to give Dirk van Duijvenbode every chance of getting the better of the Welshman. I wouldn’t think Price has much to gain in a tournament of this kind anyway but you just know he’s in for pelters from the crowd the next time he appears in the UK after that incident with the ear defenders at the World Championship. That sort of thing should further help van Duijvenbode who played well enough on Friday night and should in theory come on for the run. If the Dutchman can play a clean game and not get wrapped up in Price or what the crowd does then he has an excellent chance here against a Price who clearly isn’t feeling great and a baking hot stage and TV lights isn’t likely to help him.
Tips
Back S.Bunting to beat D.Noppert for a 3/10 stake at 2.10 with William Hill
Back D.van Duijvenbode to beat G.Price for a 3/10 stake at 2.60 with William Hill
Back them here:
Back G.Anderson to beat R.Cross for a 3/10 stake at 2.20 with BetVictor
Back him here:
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