The Darts World Cup 2014 - Day 2

Posted: 06.06.14 in Tournament Analysis Blog category

The Darts World Cup got off to a flyer yesterday, here's what's happening today!

Finland, Germany, Canada and the Republic of Ireland were the four seeds bundled out of the World Cup yesterday! Wales had to endure a last leg shoot out against France to book their place in Round 2.

Paul Lim rolled back the years with a highly impressive performance for Singapore in their win over the Republic of Ireland. It took a while for him to get going but when he did...The man is a darting legend!

Afternoon Session 1pm-5pm 

Format

The Second Round is played as two best of seven leg 501 Singles matches, with both nations nominating the order in which their players play. In the event of both nations winning one Singles match apiece, a best of seven leg 501 Doubles match will be played to decide the tie.

Second Round

Northern Ireland v Japan  Odds: Northern Ireland 2/5 Japan 9/4

Singles 1 - Michael Mansell (4/7)  v Morihiro Hashimoto (5/4)
Singles 2 - Brendan Dolan (4/11) v Haruki Muramatsu (2/1)
Doubles (if needed) - Dolan/Mansell v Hashimoto/Muramatsu

Preview:

A good draw for Japan. Mansell is a good dart player but Hashimoto will give him a game. The best chance for the underdogs (in all the games) is to win (at least) one of their single games and take the match to a pairs shoot out. We have already seen the carnage the pairs can bring and there will be more of the same today, I am convinced of that!

If Japan can take Northern Ireland to the doubles game then who knows? My feeling is though that Northern Ireland should be too strong.

Belgium v Austria  Odds: Belgium 3/10 Austria 3/1

Singles 1 - Kim Huybrechts (1/3) v Mensur Suljovic (9/4)
Singles 2 - Ronny Huybrechts (8/15)  v Rowby-John Rodriguez (11/8)
Doubles (if needed) - Huybrechts/Huybrechts v Suljovic/Rodriguez

Preview:

Mensur Suljovic was awful yesterday, he will need to make a dramatic recovery to trouble Kim Huybrechts. The Huybrechts duo  looked good yesterday, their family bond came shining through on the oche and they will move on to the next round!

Wales v Poland  Odds: Wales 2/9  Poland 9/2

Singles 1 - Mark Webster (2/7)  v Krzysztof Chmielewski (5/2)
Singles 2 - Richie Burnett (4/11) v Krzysztof Strozyk (2/1)
Doubles (if needed) - Webster/Burnett v Chmielewski/Strozyk

Preview:

Wales 2/9 on! Wow! The bookies watched a different tournament to me yesterday! Wales got off to a sluggish start against France. Burnett hit some form in the latter part of the match but Mark looked edgy! The key match will be Webster v Chmielewski. If Poland can cause an upset there and at worse force a doubles match then the 9/2 about Poland will be looking very good value!

Singapore v South Africa  Odds: Singapore 9/4  South Africa 2/5

Singles 1 - Paul Lim (9/4)  v Devon Petersen (1/3)
Singles 2 - Harith Lim (6/4) v Graham Filby (1/2)
Doubles (if needed) - Lim/Lim v Petersen/Filby

Preview:

This should be a cracker. The old hand Paul Lim v popular Devon Petersen! I must admit I haven't bought in to the Petersen hype yet. He is a great character and ambassador for the game but his technique needs tightening if he is going to make a sustained assult on the PDC rankings. I think this match will go all the way!

Ball image courtesy of Danilo Rizzuti /www.freedigitalphotos.net