Luke Littler looks too big to ignore to hit the most 180s in his quarter-final clash with Stephen Bunting on Thursday night. Over the course of the opening 15 weeks of the campaign, the teenage sensation has racked up an eye-watering 162 180s, an average of almost five per game. Littler’s 180 haul in this year's Premier League has comfortably surpassed the previous record (128) that he achieved last season for the most maximums scored in a single season. 

Bunting, on the other hand, has tallied a total of 60 180s in this season’s Premier League, with only Rob Cross (52) hitting fewer. ‘The Bullet’ has already gone up against ‘The Nuke’ four times in this season’s Premier League, with the latter winning the 180 battle on each respective occasion, so a repeat on Thursday night holds plenty of appeal.

Nathan Aspinall hit the most 180s in his win over Michael van Gerwen last Thursday and a repeat is fancied when the pair toe the oche again in Sheffield this week. The ‘Asp’ hit 4 maximums to MVG’s 2  in Aberdeen last Thursday, and that was also the case when the duo met in Manchester back on Night 10.  After getting the better of van Gerwen last week, Aspinall then proceeded to hit the most 180s in his subsequent victories over both Stephen Bunting and Chris Dobey, again delivering 4 maximums in each of those respective wins.

Last week's combined 180 haul of 12 means that only Luke Littler (162) and Luke Humphries (92) have hit more maximums than Aspinall (88) across the opening 15 weeks of this season’s Premier League.

Meanwhile, van Gerwen has not been filling up the treble 20 bed with the frequency that we have become accustomed to over the years. In fact, only Stephen Bunting (60) and Rob Cross (52) have hit fewer 180s than MVG (68) going into the final night of the regular season.

Luke Humphries looks well placed to come out on top on the 180 count when he takes on Rob Cross on Thursday night. A combined total of 14 180s were crashed in during Humphries’ 6-3 loss to Luke Littler in Aberdeen last Thursday, with ‘Cool Hand’ responsible for no fewer than 9 of those maximums. What’s more, the Newbury ace unfurled 5 180s when defeating Littler in the Night 14 final in Leeds two weeks ago. Having racked up 14 maximums across his last two outings, Humphries is now closing in on a century of 180s in this season’s Premier League.

While replicating last week’s remarkable 180 return of 9 in a single match will be a tall order in Sheffield, Humphries should have enough in his locker to outmax Cross. ‘Voltage’ could only muster up a solitary 180 when losing to Chris Dobey last week, leaving him rooted at the bottom of the Premier League 180 leaderboard with an overall return of 52 maximums this season.