After a week of some excellent darts and some indifferent ones we are down to the final of the World Matchplay. Michael van Gerwen takes on Phil Taylor for the title. Van Gerwen could win his second title or Taylor will be champion at the Winter Gardens for an unprecedented 16th time.
Saturday Recap
What promised to be a fantastic night of darts on Saturday turned out to be a bit of a damp squib. Michael van Gerwen and Phil Taylor proved to be far too good for Adrian Lewis and Gary Anderson respectively. My attack on the various side markets failed, but my punt on Taylor to win landed providing us with a return.
Michael van Gerwen
The defending champion is yet to be really tested in the tournament but it would be a surprise to most if he isn’t tested here. Given that he hasn’t been challenged so far it is hard to know just how much he has played within himself or whether the form he has shown is how he is playing. I would imagine he’ll need to play better than he has to come through here.
Van Gerwen whitewashed a disappointing Jamie Caven in the opening round before powering past Kyle Anderson in the second round. He then came past Dave Chisnall in the quarter final but Chisnall was hampered by nerves and never got going. Then came Adrian Lewis in the semi-final and he was ruthlessly dispatched.
Phil Taylor
Unlike van Gerwen, Taylor has been challenged a couple of times in his run to the final. That wasn’t down to him playing badly. His opponents have generally been very good against him forcing him to play well. The thing that has really caught the eye has been the number of 180s he has hit so far – a sign he’s in decent form.
Taylor was pushed by Robbie Green in the first round. He then got past Mensur Suljovic with a little bit to spare in the second round. Mervyn King took Taylor the distance in the quarter final before The Power lived up to his nickname in blowing Gary Anderson away in the semi-final.
Betting
These two have met 10 times in 2016. Van Gerwen has won seven to Taylor’s two and there has been one draw. None of their battles have been over this sort of distance. Therefore, I’m not sure how much relevance there is in these results.
I think we’re better off betting on what has taken place this week. With that in mind I’m with Phil Taylor here. He has been scoring very proficiently. Generally he has been very solid on his doubles, bar one or two wobbles against Mervyn King in the quarter-finals.
A sign of how MVG is playing can often be seen in his scoring. If he is powering in the scores then he generally blitzes players. The scoring hasn’t been tip top from him here thus far. He has missed some doubles along the way which he won’t be able to do here.
I think with the form they’ve shown this week this final is much more of a 50/50 than the odds suggest. With that in mind I’m with Taylor to triumph on a Blackpool stage where he is yet to lose a final.
Tips
Back P.Taylor to beat M.van Gerwen for a 4/10 stake at 3.20 with Paddy Power
Back him here:
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