It’s hard to look past Luke Littler lifting the Matchplay trophy tonight. ‘The Nuke’ staged a stunning comeback to claim a 17-14 win over Josh Rock on Saturday night, delivering a roof-raising nine-dart-finish for good measure. The manner of that victory was made all the more impressive by the fact that Littler averaged 107.5. He has averaged north of 103 across three of his four matches at this year's World Matchplay, and a repeat here should be enough to ensure that he completes the 'Triple Crown' in darts.

Admittedly, Wade’s surge to this year's showpiece has served as a timely reminder that he still remains one of the best in the business, but toppling Littler in a race to a minimum of 18 legs will be a tall order. ’The Machine’ made heavy weather of his semi-final win over Jonny Clayton, and he now faces an upgrade on that challenge against world champion Littler.

While I don’t envisage the type of landslide victory (11-2) that Littler claimed over Wade in this year’s UK Open Final, I’m more than happy to back the Warrington wonderkid to overcome a -2.5 handicap on his way to claiming a maiden Matchplay title.

Luke Littler has hit a 180 an astonishing 47 times at the Winter Gardens, two of which formed part of last night’s spectacular nine-darter. What’s more, no fewer than 15 of Littler’s overall tally of 47 maximums arrived during his semi-final success over Josh Rock on Saturday night, while he unfurled a whopping 18 180s when getting past Andrew Gilding at the quarter-final stage. 

Littler’s latest flurry of maximums has seen him further extend his lead at the top of this season’s 180 leaderboard, leading the way with a gargantuan return of 547 since the turn of the year. 

Given that Littler’s Winter Gardens showdown with Wade will be played over the best of 35 legs, a minimum of 13 180s looks well within range for the teenage trailblazer. Littler racked up nine maximums against Wade in this year's UK Open final, so it's well within the realms of possibility that he can deliver 13 or more here over what will be a significantly longer format. Odds of 1.80 look good value here.