Darts World Cup Saturday Preview and Tips

We are into the boring phase of the World Cup betting wise. No more funky side markets just win only markets. In uncompetitive heats like most of today’s matches it is either a no bet or stick your favourites into an accumulator and hope there are no shocks. The format for day is two best of seven legs singles matches. If the scores are tied, a best of seven legs doubles match will settle the match. Still a short format and slow starts are unwelcome. Darts World Cup Saturday tips and preview are below.

Northern Ireland vs. Portugal

All eight seeded teams made it through the first round, but these two only by the skin of their teeth. Northern Ireland survived match darts for Hong Kong to fall over the line as 5-4 winners. Needless to say, neither player was at their best, the nerves quickly set in and the whole thing was a struggle.

Portugal faced tougher opponents in the shape of the Republic of Ireland, but Jose De Sousa had to rely on his part timer teammate to get him out of trouble. Luckily for Portugal, Ireland was a lot worse on the doubles and Portugal won the deciding leg for another 5-4 win.

Both Northern Ireland and Portugal averaged 86 and both are capable of better. Now that we are playing singles matches, and only doubles if the match is tied 1-1, we should see the more ‘normal’ form coming to the fore. This means it is advantage Northern Ireland. Dolan and Gurney can fend for themselves, they have all the experience required to compete in big matches while Portugal are more of a one-man team. That said, Jose Marques played well in the first round and that will have given him some confidence, but he doesn’t have the safety net of Jose hitting 180’s to help him along today.

De Sousa Strong

In terms of singles matches, De Sousa is 2-1 with Dolan and 2-0 against Gurney and he will be favourite to win his match. Dolan or Gurney will be short odds to beat Marques. It doesn’t always work out, but this looks like having 1-1 and a pairs decider written all over it.

Northern Ireland has to be the favourite, Dolan or Gurney could get a win over De Sousa but it would be a surprise if Marques can beat either of the Ulstermen. 2-0 to Northern Ireland or 2-1 to whoever gets their shit together in a pairs match. The palpable sense of relief from the Northern Irish pair at the end of their match last night suggests that they will now be much more settled, the dreaded first round exit has been avoided. For Portugal, reaching the second round was seen as a good result and as far as they went last year. Portugal averaged just 83 in their 0-2 defeat to Austria in 2019.

Northern Ireland are the 1.57 favourites to win the match, Portugal 2.55. You can’t argue with those odds.

England vs. South Africa

Chisnall and Wade averaged just 80.95 when beating Brazil 5-2. A poor performance but the pace of a doubles match just doesn’t suit Chizzy and he never got going. Better doubling from Brazil and the underdogs would have been 3-0. They also missed darts to win the fifth leg and the chance to get within touching distance of a shock. But in the end, the lack of firepower from Brazil was the difference

Into the singles matches and Chizzy will get the kind of pace he needs, or at least closer to it.

South Africa have Spain to thank for losing their first-round match. South Africa were poor, averaging 82.3, but Spain was unable to take advantage despite scoring much better for most of the match. South Africa’s number two player Carl Gabriel played his part in the win, but he is flying solo now and he looked as nervous as hell in the pairs. Petersen showed no signs that his game is in any better shape than it has been for a while now. He is moving too much when throwing and he isn’t the player he was 12 months ago.

England are the 1.18 favourites and should win at a canter despite last night’s poor effort.

Australia vs. USA

The Aussies did it for Kyle and will be hoping that this mantra carries them through another winnable match. Their Italian opponents on Thursday night were dreadful and this will be harder, but the experienced Australian side can justify odds of 1.33.

The Americans played well, averaging 92, to beat Sweden 5-1. It was a solid performance, decent scoring, three 180’s and 38.5% on doubles. It was a good team performance but now they must do it in the singles.

Australia are rightly the favourites, and it would be a surprise if they failed to progress, but it may not be a walk the park.

Belgium vs. Austria

This looks more competitive, at least on paper. Austria have the lesser spotted and now bespectacled Mensur Suljovic as the senior player. He has only played one singles match in the last three months and lost 5-6 to Keane Barry last weekend. Getting used to playing with glasses on is a challenge, ask Phil Taylor or Gary Anderson. It was noticeable that Suljovic played part of the match against the Philippines without the glasses, before putting them back on again. Clearly, he is not comfortable with them yet. Rowby-John Rodriguez may have lost his tour card in 2020 but he is still playing a lot of pro tour events, averaging 89.7 and he is capable of taking a big scalp or two. His record vs. Kim Huybrechts is 1-7 and against Dimitri, 3-6.

Belgium has the stronger pairing. Kim Huybrechts may be a fading force, but when he puts on the team shirt the years are rolled back. He will give it everything. They beat Greece 5-2 last night. It was a routine win, never in doubt and just a nice warm up for this.

With Suljovic having no real recent form to speak of, he is very hard to judge but he has to be rusty and hard to fancy. The Belgians look the stronger pairing but Austria, like Belgium have a good World Cup record and they won’t be push overs. Belgium are the 1.40 favourites, and they should get the job done.

Darts World Cup Saturday: Evening Session

Scotland vs. Poland

Scotland are the 1.57 favourites here and they might have their work cut out to justify that. The Scots did a good job when beating China 5-0. The Chinese were as poor as expected but Scotland stuck to their task, averaged 93.9 and never broke sweat. A good performance, but not as good as the Polish side.

The two Krzysztof’s smashed in a 104.97 average when beating the Czech Republic 5-2. The Czechs averaged 103.47, one of the highest averages in a world cup pairs match, and they still got well beaten. Ratajski was really impressive and if he carries on in that sort of form, he will be hard to beat. Poland could be smart/get lucky and have Kciuk play Wright and Ratajski play Henderson. That should result in a 1-1 match at the least and in a pairs match, Poland has every chance.

Henderson Form Pivotal

This match might well revolve around John Henderson. He is trying to rebuild his form and throw to some degree. His massive weight loss has caused him problems. He is known as rocking John because of his throwing action, rocking back and forward, and losing the weight has moved his centre of gravity and he said he just feels different when rocking.

His win rate in 2021 has dropped to 43% and his annual average is just over 91. Hendo’s H2H record with Ratajski is 0-4 and against Kciuk 1-4. He is really going to be up against it whoever he plays. Kciuk isn’t a much better player than Henderson, his average and win rate is very similar, but those H2H stats will be a worry for a less than confident Henderson. He started poorly in the pairs match on Thursday but settled into it against zero opposition. This evening is the acid test.

Peter Wright has an excellent record against Ratajski, leading 10-1 and 4-1 vs. Kciuk and Snakebite should get a point on the board for Scotland, but can Hendo back him up? This has 1-1 written large and in a pairs match anything can happen and if anything, the Poles might be favourites in that situation.

Darts World Cup Saturday: 1 point Poland to win @ 2.60 with Ladbrokes

Darts World Cup Saturday: Germany vs. Japan

Japan keeps on producing unknown players who turn out to be quite good. Quite good, but not great. They faced effectively a one player team in the form of Russia and that player, Boris Koltsov didn’t play well and couldn’t carry his partner. Japan averaged 82.5 and that was enough to win 5-1.

Germany averaged 85.3 in their 5-3 win over Canada last night. It was a close, and slightly disappointing match quality wise. Canada missed crucial doubles and but for that, it could have been them in the second round. The crowd were very noisy and helped push their team over the line, but it wasn’t a great performance.

Japan will have the crowd against them, have better players to beat and have to play singles. A very different challenge. They are under no pressure, but at worst, the Germans should shade it, at best win 2-0. Germany can be backed at 1.31 and they should justify those odds.

Netherlands vs. Singapore

The Dutch cruised to a 5-1 win over Denmark. The Danes missed the chance to go 2-0 up and even a 3-0 lead was possible, but the Danes were a poor team. Once the Dutch settled, they picked up the standard and finished the match with legs of 14, 15 and 13 darts.

Singapore took advantage of Gibraltar’s lack of experience to win their match 5-4. The youngsters had lead 3-0 after some dire doubling from Singapore. That poor doubling returned to cost them another leg and Gib went 4-2 up but then they got tight, and Singapore won it with a 15 dart leg.

This is likely to be as far as the Philippines get and the Dutch look nailed on at 1.05.

Darts World Cup Saturday: Wales vs. Lithuania

The Welsh duo didn’t set the world on fire with their 5-2 win over Finland. They were never in any bother and but for an excellent bullseye checkout by Kantele, would have won 5-0, but they went on great, averaging 89 and just 33% on the doubles. Jonny Clayton was poor on the doubles in Hungary last week and he needs to improve that part of his game.

Lithuania are another of the one man teams. Darius Labanauskas is an effective player rather than a heavy scorer and he struggled to carry his partner. Lithuania were lucky that Hungary were poor, averaging just 71 and The Lithuanians, averaging 75 got home with a 5-3 win.

Labanauskas is not easy to beat and he might cause a few problems but even a poor performance from Wales will be too much for Lithuania. Another nailed on 1.5 favourite.

-JamesPunt