It’s Semi-Final night in Blackpool and we have two Dutchmen, a Belgian and a Welshman vying for the title. Two previous winners clash in the top half whilst the two men in the bottom half will be aiming to reach their maiden final in this event. Our expert previews the action prior to what could be an amazing night of darts.
Gerwyn Price v Danny Noppert
After his victory last night Gerwyn Price is now back on his perch as the World Number One. It’s rather apt then that his performances this week have been very good, so much so that of these four remaining players he now has the highest tournament average at 101.46.
His doubling has been very good too. His favourite is Double 20 and he’s hit 40% of his attempts at that segment. If that fails he’s then got the belief in Double 10 which he’s checking out at a whopping 66.67%. If he then uses other doubles it’s typically Double 12 or Bullseye. That’s just fine for him he’s also as he’s 50% and 44.44% on those respectively. It’s almost akin to his checkout efficiency when he lifted the 2021 World Championship title.
He’s come through three close encounters to reach this stage having won 10-8, 11-8 and 16-14 in the first three rounds. The Welshman seems in buoyant mood now having been a bit in the doldrums coming into the Matchplay. His most recent match average of 104.64 is the highest of the event so far.
He’s defeated Danny Noppert in both meetings this year – both of which were on stage – by scorelines of 6-4 and 4-1. They will bear no significant here though in a match which is now Best of 33 Legs.
The first of those matches was when Danny played a belated first tournament of the year compared to most players after becoming a father early in the year. Since then however Danny has gone from strength to strength, winning 74.2% of all matches he’s played in 2022 compared to 62% of Price.
He’s already won one major this year, the UK Open in March. A tournament in which he beat Dirk Van Duijvenbode en route, the player he beat in the Quarter Finals here, a good omen perhaps.
There’s a lot to like about Noppert in this event too. He dug deep to advance past Brendan Dolan 10-6 in the opening round having trailed 4-6. He then had it all his own way to dispatch of Daryl Gurney 11-4 before coming through his latest match 16-11 with a late surge in the match proving crucial as he took all hope away from Dirk to clinically advance.
This should be a close match and I slightly favour Price who seems to be coming into this in the best form we’ve seen him for a while. He’ll be pushed all the way though by ‘The Freeze’. The bet I like here is in the 180 marker where I think Noppert is underrated. He’s improved his 180 per leg ratio this year to 0.29 per leg, higher than that of Price at 0.26 per leg. He’s also higher in this respect for the tournament at 0.38 to that of 0.35 of ‘The Icemen’.
Dimitri Van Den Bergh v Michael Van Gerwen
Dimitri Van Den Bergh gained revenge for last year’s final defeat at the hands of Peter Wright by defeating ‘Snakebite’ 16-14 in a thrilling Quarter-Final. It was a real ding dong battle with various clear front runners at various times and despite it looking like going one way then the other towards the end you just never knew which way the result was going to go. On the balance of play, I would say that Dimitri probably just deserved to edge it, however.
That final defeat last year remains the Belgian’s only defeat in the Matchplay as he aims to make his third consecutive final in this event in just his third appearance. He’s playing well enough that’s for sure. His doubling percentage for the tournament is an outstanding 54.4% and his average is 100.59 but what’s improved match by match for him is his scoring average with his first nine darts. In his opener it was 100.86, in his second game it was 103.98 and against ‘Snakey’ it was a superb 110.83. This was crucial in terms of the outcome of that match.
He’ll need to remain at that sort of level here as he faces the formidable Michael Van Gerwen who also seems to be improving match by match after his recent Carpel Tunnel Surgery.
At times last night, MVG was awesome as he too raced into a significant 11-4 lead at one point. His opponent Nathan Aspinall put a spirited performance to stage a late fightback but couldn’t quite draw level and a match-winning 146 checkout to seal the match with ‘The Asp’ sat on just 84 to level the game at 15-15 meant Van Gerwen triumphed 16-14, the same scoreline as Dimitri.
‘The Green Machine’ has certainly left his opening game standard behind. He looked lacklustre in that one but his match average has got better each round. It was just 89.99 versus Adrian Lewis in Round One. He then upped this to 97.12 against Cullen before averaging 101.86 on Thursday night, his first 100+ average in thirteen matches.
His tournament average now stands at 97.23 with a double success of 42.05%. In his latest match, he hit twelve 180’s his highest in a match since registering 16 in his PDC World Championship 2020 Final defeat to Peter Wright. The signs could be ominous for his opponents this week.
It’s a tight game to call but I have a slight favour towards Dimitri coming out on top as he’s been the more consistent of the two this week. If that does happen double it up with him to hit the Most 180’s as the stats suggest he’s the bigger maximum hitter too.
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