Peter Wright v Dimitri Van Den Bergh
Twelve months ago this was the final on the Winter Gardens stage at Blackpool but this time the pair collide in a mouth-watering clash at just the Quarter-Final stage.
The defending champion Peter ‘Snakebite’ Wright came through the match of the tournament on Tuesday night as he was taken to extra time by Krzysztof Ratajski before claiming a 13-11 victory.
After a simple 10-4 opening round victory over Madars Razma it looked like his second round match was also going to be one way traffic when he led 7-3 at the second interval. From this point on the match took a huge upsurge in standard and we witnessed an epic encounter. The match had it all, high scoring, lots of maximums and plenty of drama. Wright had the throw on the night and always managed to keep his nose in front and edge the game.
He has a tournament average of 101.08 and has hit seventeen 180’s in thirty-eight legs of darts. Despite him being under severe pressure in his latest match he seemed to find more when needed.
Similarly Dimitri Van Den Bergh has done little wrong either. He followed up a facile 10-2 victory over Callan Rydz in his opening match with an 11-6 defeat of Rowby-John Rodriguez with both men hitting six 180’s apiece.
Dimitri’s average for the tournament is 99.21 which is good but it’s his doubling that’s been most noticeable with a whopping 65.63% success rate. He might need that as you’d have to think Snakebite will outscore him if we look at their first nine scoring darts average which reads 102.69 for Dimi but 113.36 for Wright.
In last years final Peter Wright took an early stranglehold on the match as he led 4-1 at the first interval and 8-2 at the second. Dimi can’t afford to let him do that this time around.
They are both very capable of producing top quality darts and the winner of this match will be hugely fancied to reach the final this year. One aspect of the game that could be crucial in determining the winner is the big finishes. Peter Wright has registered 27 of them in his last 16 matches, which is over 99 winning legs. As the format increases to best of 31 legs I think the value is to go for 3 or more 100+ checkouts from ‘Snakey’.
Michael Van Gerwen v Nathan Aspinall
The winner of the aforementioned match will take on the winner of this game in the Semi-Final on Saturday night.
Van Gerwen has only been seen three times since winning the Premier League title due to carpel tunnel surgery and it really has been a mixed bag from him. In his two games here he looked mediocre in opener his against Adrian Lewis, averaging less than 90 but his doubling helped get him through. He then raised this standard substantially against Joe Cullen in his second game to average 97.12 but his levels fluctuated. He averaged 111.14 in the opening five legs, 88.56 in the next five and 94.47 in the final six to win 11-6.
It was an easy enough victory in the end but Cullen’s belief faded as he ran out of legs despite chances to win numerous legs late on. Unfortunately for him he just couldn’t quite get back into it sufficiently recover after the damage of the opening session.
Aspinall on the other hand has been in red hot form during July, winning 18 of his 23 matches, reaching two Quarter Finals and two Semi-Finals. He looked very good in defeating a very much in form Luke Humphries 10-5 in his opener before following this up by defeating James Wade 11-9 in round two. In both games these games he’s averaged 96+.
He too has recovered from surgery this year but he seems to have rediscovered the form that took him to two consecutive World Championship Semi-Finals. He’s very consistent and you have to go back 19 matches for the last time he averaged sub 90. He always seems to average at least 93+ and his seasonal average of 95.74 suggests that.
‘The Asp’ is also very tenacious and dogged. He seems to love a good scrap on the oche and can grind out wins too. His game against Wade was very nip and tuck until he made a decisive break of throw late on.
Both men have match win percentage of 72% this year and they met at this stage last year. On that occasion it was MVG who came out on top 16-9 but I can see that match result being reversed here. The jury is still out on Van Gerwen who admitted he isn’t back to his best after his victory over Cullen and I think Aspinall can exploit that. The once regular 100+ average man MVG hasn’t registered a 100+ average in his last twelve matches and if The Asp replicates his standard so far this week. I’m going for him to win this one.
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