Michael Van Gerwen continues his unbelievable 2012/2013 by adding the Premier League to his Grand Prix title. The 24-year old Dutchman created history by succumbing Phil Taylor to his first ever defeat in a Premier League final. The two finalists saw off their opponents by beating them 8-4 before locking horns for what was the second, of what will be many, major finals between Taylor and Van Gerwen.
The final was literally a match of two halves as Taylor dominated the first part of the final before Van Gerwen battled back after the break to seize his opportunity and take the crown, 10-8. The Dutchman did win the opening leg of the final and missed double seven to take out-134, which would have given him a 2-0 lead. Nerves may have played a part for Van Gerwen in the early going and three missed darts at the double in the third leg allowed Taylor to find an early break.
The Power looked imperious and would the Van Gerwen once again in the seventh leg to lead 5-2. This time, Taylor failed to hold to his own throw in order to extend his lead further. This meant that Van Gerwen only went in at the break 5-3 down, in the race to ten.
As their has been no break in any of this season's Premier League matches, the interval may have stopped both of the players' rhythm in the ninth leg. Both players missed two darts to win the leg before Van Gerwen crucially took out-20 to hold his throw and move to within a leg of Taylor. That leg immediately came as Taylor missed two darts to hold his two leg advantage and Van Gerwen wasn't going to waste this opportunity to level the match.
The 11th leg was the first time Van Gerwen took the lead since the very start and when Taylor missed a further dart to win leg-12, the Dutchman soon found himself in a promising position at 7-5. Then it was Van Gerwen's turn to miss darts to go 8-5 in front, allowing Taylor to close the gap back to one. The 16th leg saw a little bit of inexperience come from Van Gerwen as he threw the gauntlet down to Taylor. The Power was waiting on-160 and Van Gerwen was naive enough to think that he could ignore at shot at the bull in favour of setting himself up for double-16, believing that Taylor wouldn't hit the three figure checkout. But how wrong was the Dutchman, Taylor hit treble-20, treble-20 and then double top to take the 160-out and level the match.
Most other players would have fazed by that tenacious finish, but not Van Gerwen. The Dutchman started the 15th leg with a 180 before finishing on-40 to retake the lead. Taylor then missed two more doubles in the next leg to allow Van Gerwen to go one away from victory. The victory was very in his own hands in leg-17 but he blew two Premier League winning darts to allow Taylor force another leg. But again Van Gerwen wasn't fazed and the Dutchman would win the match in sublime style; with his first dart he hit the-25, that was followed by treble-19 before a fantastic bulls-eye to take out-132 and claim the Premier League in his debut year.
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