The ante was upped for the semi-finals as the format reverted back to the last World Cup. The matches consisted of four singles matches and a final doubles match which still carried two points with it. Australia faced Holland in the first semi-final with Simon Whitlock first up against Vincent Van der Voort. Van der Voort initially took the lead before finding himself 3-1 down. The Dutchman rallied round and was able to force a deciding leg, but Whitlock won it to give Australia the first point of the night.
Raymond Van Barneveld returned to his best against Paul Nicholson. Barney didn't drop a leg against The Asset to win the game 4-0 and level the overall score up at 1-1. But Barney couldn't repeat his form against fellow Premier League representative Whitlock. Whitlock charged into a 3-0 lead before Barney came back to within a leg but Whitlock was able to get the job done.
This meant Van der Voort had to beat Nicholson to avoid needing to win the doubles match and a sudden death shoot-out. The Dutchman again took the lead before having to level the match at 2-2. But Nicholson took the following two legs to win the match 4-2 and put Australia in a commanding position. Whitlock was the star in the doubles match, managing check-outs of 105 and 110 to win the game 4-0 and win the match 5-1.
England took on neighbours Wales in the second semi-final of the night. For the third day in a row, Phil Taylor lost a singles match. He opened the match against Richie Burnett and managed a 111 check-out to make it 2-1 in the Welshman's favour. But Taylor couldn't take that forward and Burnett took the next two legs to put Wales ahead.
Current Premier League star, Adrian Lewis, took on former Premier League entrant, Mark Webster. The World Champion finally found his clinical darts to whitewash Webster and level the match up. Taylor then managed his first singles win of the tournament against Webster. After being 2-0 down, the Welshman missed a dart at the double to level the game and found himself 3-1 behind. Taylor took the next leg to finish the game off and give England a 2-1 lead.
The final singles game could have gone either way as it twisted and turned throughout. Lewis took the lead before Burnett turned it around to lead 2-1. Lewis again fought back to re-take the lead but Burnett forced a seventh leg out of the game. Lewis took the final leg to give England a 3-1 lead and another commanding position. The doubles match was level a 1-1 before England took a 3-1 lead and one leg away from the final. It took two attempts, but the World's Number One and Two got that winning leg to set up a tie against Australia in the final.
No comments:
Post a Comment