The two bold Adonis’ will contest the second semi final of the PDC World Darts Championship at London’s Alexandra Palace. Van Gerwen is chasing a third title to match the likes of John Part and John Lowe whilst Rob Cross would like to emulate Phil Taylor & Dennis Priestley in winning the World Title on his debut.
“Mighty Mike” has got to this stage despite some tense moments after defeating Christian Kist 3-1 and James Wilson 4-0 he was 2 sets to nil up over Gerwyn Price before the Welsh slinger found inspired form to peg back to 2-2 in sets and missing 3 darts at tops to go in front 3-2. Then van Gerwen capitalised taking the game 4-2. Then in his Quarter final V Raymond van Barneveld he came out in the opening couple of set edgy averaging 85 in the latter. But MVG went 3-1 in front before missing darts to extend his set lead to 3. Barney would then come back to him and the game went the distance with Barney missing crucial darts at double which again van Gerwen took advantage of to squeeze through to the last 4.
Rob Cross himself hasn’t had it all his way himself in advancing to the semi-finals. He beat Seigo Asada 3-1 in the opener before a tense 4-3 victory over 13th seed Michael Smith. A 4-2 win over John Henderson swiftly followed before a Quarter final clash against Dimitri van den Bergh which at 4-1 up looked like he won before the Belgian battled back to force a decider which the World Youth Champion missed 3 darts at a double before Cross punished and won his place in the semi finals.
The stats perhaps unsurprisingly have Michael van Gerwen as favourite for this match. His tournament average 3 points higher than that of “Voltage” at 103 compared to Cross’ straight ton. However Cross leads the 180 count 40-32 but with van Gerwen one of the most prolific switchers in the game could be a reason as to why. But the crucial doubles is where the biggest disparity lies with van Gerwen leading by 5 points 48% to 43%.
My Verdict:
I think Rob Cross will give van Gerwen a good game but I think the World Number 1 will have too much for him. His power scoring is better than anyone and if Cross is to have any chance he has to be taking out middle of the range shots like 121/127 which Barney did to him a couple of years back along with an average around the 100.
Michael van Gerwen 6-3 Rob Cross
Henry Deacon Media 