Sam Hart gives us his best bets on day three of the World Darts Championship.
Afternoon Session
Once again we have an afternoon and evening session to look forward to. The game I want to focus on is the match between England's James Hurrell and Canada's Jim Long. This is likely to be the most exciting match in Tuesday’s afternoon session. James Hurrell hasn’t had the best run-up to the Championships, losing his last three games on the PDC tour. He did however beat one of my fancies for the tournament, Wessel Nijman, in the Players Championship 29. His opponent, Jim Long, has been playing on the Modus Super Series but 5 years ago did have a fair run into the last 64 of this event. So this could be a tight affair. That being said seeing James Hurrell averaged close to 98 in his 6-5 loss to Danny Noppert at the Players Championship final and that could be too good against Jim, I can see him coming through this by a 3-1 scoreline, which is currently 7/2 with Bet Victor.
Mike De Decker is the seeded player in the afternoon, and he plays Luke Woodhouse who beat Ilagan in Mondays first round match. Mike has had some year and is one of the young players who will be fighting to get a place in the Premier League. If he doesn’t make the Premier League this year, he will likely make it next year. He is a rapidly improving player, and he could put in a good show during this year's worlds.
Evening Session
The evening session has three first-round matches and ends with a second-round match, which sees the man with the party, Peter Wright, take to the stage.
Taking a bit of focus on the Ricardo Pietreczko vs Xiao Chen Zong match, which is the second match of the night. Pietreczko is a player who can get frustrated with himself but should easily be getting through this match. The winner of this match does not have to play until the 23rd of December against another one of my tournament fancies, Gian Van Veen. Pietreczko is more than capable of turning on a 100+ average, and even if he is averaging just shy of that, it should be enough to get through Xiao. Xiao will struggle to get above an average of 90, and even if Pietreczko’s finishing isn’t quite all there, he should still win this comfortably. So a 3-0 win for Pietreczko at 7/10 will be my fancy here.
All eyes will be on the third match of the night, which is a game between Ryan Meikle and Fallon Sherrock. The reason this will be an intriguing contest is that the winner of this has to play tournament favourite Luke “The Nuke” Littler. A lot of darts fans and casuals will want to see The Nuke vs The Queen of the Palace on Saturday night, which should generate some atmosphere. Fallon is 11/4 to win this match, and there is every chance she could pull off a big win at the Palace. Her opponent Ryan Meikle is a great young player, and he beat Gary Anderson at the Players Championship Finals. That is some doing, due to the fact Gary is playing some of the darts of his life. Gary averaged 103 in that match against Ryan and still got beat with Meikle finishing extremely well. So if I went head over heart here, I would have Ryan Meikle winning this match, but it could be close. So an over 3.5 sets at 31/50 with Unibet could be the play here.
Peter Wright ends the night against Plazier who came through his Monday tie against Azemoto, and even though he came unstuck at this stage last year Peter Wright and he has been out of form, I have a feeling that against Plazier, he will get through to round three.
So the treble for the day is James Hurrell to beat Jim Long 3-1, Pietreczko to win 3-0 vs Xiao Chen Zong, and over 3.5 sets in the Meikle vs Sherrock match. That pays around the 11/1 mark with most bookmakers.
Thanks for tuning into this Day Three World Darts Championship preview. enjoy the sport and as always, do remember to gamble responsibly.