2024 Thursday Bahrain Darts Masters Tips – JP
2024 Thursday Bahrain Darts Masters Preview & Tips
James Punt had a pretty profitable three weeks at the PDC World Championship. He is back in action this weekend in Bahrain. Will Luke Littler’s meteoric rise continue, can Luke Humphries maintain his excellent form? Find out what James thinks in his 2024 Thursday Bahrain Darts Masters preview below.
Overview
Seeing as its too cold to do much else, I’ve decided to have a look at today’s Bahrain Masters’ first round matches. I won’t be making a habit of it, but there might be a few opportunities for the underdogs this afternoon/evening.
Last year’s inaugural Bahrain Masters wasn’t quite the bloodbath for the Asian players as I expected. The PDC pros only had the one 6-0 win, and while none of the Asian Tour or local qualifiers won a match, Dimitri van den Bergh was taken to a decider.
Luke Humphries and Peter Wright both lost three legs and the new World Champion at the time, Michael Smith dropped a leg to a player averaging 63.
Jolly Boys Outing
To be clear, this is an away day jolly for the PDC pros. It is a holiday with the chance to make a few quid while enjoying some winter sun.
The pros have had time off after the World Championship, not much practicing will have been done, and this is an event to knock a bit of rust off the their games before the start of the season proper with The Premier League and Masters kicking off in a couple of weeks.
The Asian Tour players in the field have had three Asian Tour events at the weekend, so at least they should be match sharp. They are here on business.
Peter Wright vs. Haruki Muramatsu
Snakebite was in dire form at the arse end of 2023. He lost five of his last six matches and looked washed up.
He has dropped to 7th place in the World Rankings but on the form based FDI rankings, he is 54th, and that is much more realistic of his current standing. Wright beat Toru Suzuki 6-3 last year with the Japanese player averaging 84.
We have seen a bit of Muramatsu late in 2023. He qualified for the Grand Slam after winning the Asian Championship but it didn’t go well. He lost all three group matches 3-5, 2-5 and 1-5.
Decent A-Game
Muramatsu also qualified for the World Championship and lost 1-3 to eventual semi-finalist, Scott Williams. He averaged 90 in that match and he has a very decent A-game. That he is the Asian Champion should tell us that he can play and play better than he did late last year.
If Wright is still struggling with his game, he could lose this. Muramatsu averaged 87 last season and Wright wasn’t playing much better than that in his latest matches.
2024 Thursday Bahrain Darts Tip: 0.5 point Haruki Muramatsu to win @ 4.00 generally available
2024 Thursday Bahrain Darts Tip: 1 point Haruki Muramatsu +2.5 legs to win @ 2.05 with Fitzdares
Gerwyn Price vs. Reynaldo Rivera
Rivera reached the quarter final of AT3 on Sunday, but his tournament average was just 80.37. He averaged 86.6 last season and like all these Asian Tour guys, his A-game is decent. Rivera lost 1-3 to an out of form Keane Barry at the World Championship.
Price dropped two legs to Paul Lim here last year, but at least he played well enough, averaging 96.63, so the former World Champion was trying. Price didn’t have a great 2023 title wise, but there was very little wrong with his scoring and he should have no great worries against Rivera.
The Iceman has won the World Series Finals twice in the last four years and he does take it a little more seriously than some. The money is non-ranking, but he can buy a few more houses on the back of it.
Price is the 1.07 favourite and he should win easily, probably not to nil, but he is 1.67 to cover a -3.5 leg handicap. The PDC pros covered this handicap in six of the eight first round matches last year.
2024 Thursday Bahrain Darts Tip: 1 point Gerwyn Price to win -3.5 legs @ 1.67 with Betfair, Betvictor, Boylesports
Nathan Aspinall vs. Lourence Ilagan
The Asp’s 2023 season petered out tamely after he won the Matchplay in the summer. He only won three of his last ten matches at the end of 2023. He was playing some great stuff, but also some real dross.
Aspinall was the World Series Finals runner up last year, so at least he knows that there is a decent cheque at the end of rainbow, if he can win a few matches and reach the finals again.
Ilagan may be one of the more overrated Asian Players. Wayne Mardle likes him and his profile is a bit inflated as a result. He doesn’t have the same sort of A-Game as many of the Asian Tour players have and he hasn’t hit a ton plus average in his last 50 matches.
Ilagan Experienced On TV
He is quite experienced on the TV stages and he is a steady player who makes the most of what he has got. Ilagan took two sets off Matt Campbell at Ally Pally last month and he is unlikely to get blown away, unless Aspinall brings his A-Game.
Ilagan reached the quarter final of AT3 on Sunday, averaging 85.5 across his four matches. He won six of his nine matches in the three Asian Tour events last weekend and he was very much averaging mid 80s.
It is hard to asses Aspinall. He certainly was losing far too many matches at the end of 2023, but he should win this. Ilagan is likely to win legs, but how many?
I’ll take a chance that Aspinall takes his chances and covers the handicap.
2024 Thursday Bahrain Darts Tip: 1 point Nathan Aspinall to win -2.5 legs @ 1.75 with Ladbrokes
Rob Cross vs. Tomoya Goto
Goto won two titles on the Asian Tour last year and we saw a bit of him at Ally Pally, where he beat Ian White and took a set off Ryan Searle in the second round. He hit eleven 180s across his six sets, so he is not without a decent punch. He didn’t play in the Asian Tour events last weekend, so he could be as rusty as the PDC guys.
Cross finished 2023 with a runners up spot at the Grand Slam and a semi-final at the World Championship. He was one of the top five in terms of averages in 2023 and he was playing with creditable consistency. Cross beat Nitin Kumar 6-2 here last year, averaging 95 and something similar looks possible.
2024 Thursday Bahrain Darts Tip: 0.5 point Cross to win 6-2 @ 5.60 with Unibet
Luke Littler vs. Man-Lok Leung
This could be tasty, or a damp squib. The Boy Wonder says that he hasn’t done much in the way of practice since the World Championship Final, so he may be a little rusty.
Man- Lok Leung played one amazing match at the World Championship, hitting no less than eleven 180s when beating Gian van Veen 3-2 in the first round. He wasn’t great when losing 1-3 to Gabriel Clemens, but both matches saw 90+ averages and he enjoyed playing on the big stage. He certainly wasn’t shy.
Littler is the 1.17 favourite with Leung 6.00. Could Leung light the 180 touch paper again? His stats suggest not. In 52% of his last 50 matches (before last weekend’s Asian Tour events), he has failed to hit a single maximum.
101 Average
Leung warmed up for this with a semi-final in AT3 on Sunday, averaging 101 in one match and hitting nine 180s across his four matches. He had a quarter final on Saturday and a last sixteen on Friday, so he will be feeling pretty good and certainly match fit.
He tops the Asian Tour averages after the first three events of 2024 with 87.19. That shouldn’t bother Littler, unless he has let the rust set in.
Leung was hitting 180s at 0.20 per leg at the weekend, which isn’t great, but could he be a stage monster? He loved the cameras at the Ally Pally and he knows playing Littler is the big box office draw of the first round.
Anti Climax?
As I say, this could be a huge anti-climax. Littler could be rusty and Leung could have one of his many matches where he doesn’t hit a 180, and he will need to if he is to get anything out of this game.
Littler is expected to win, and he probably will, but I will swim against the tide, and hope that Leung can turn it on again on TV.
2024 Thursday Bahrain Darts Tip: 1 point Man-Lok Leung +3.5 legs to win @ 1.83 with Fitzdares
Luke Humphries vs. Abdulla Saeed
Some bookmakers are not offering odds on a Humphries win, for obvious reasons, but you can get 1.01 if you must.
Saeed is a Bahraini qualifier and is a step or three down from the Asian Tour players. I have nothing on him form wise, but a 6-0 is likely. That only happened in one match last year, but it was against one of the Bahraini qualifiers. You’ll be hard pressed to find anyone offering odds about that soreline though.
2024 Thursday Bahrain Darts Tip: No bet
Michael Van Gerwen vs. Hasan Haji
See the match above. Another 1.01 favourite and no odds for 6-0.
2024 Thursday Bahrain Darts Tip: No Bet
Michael Smith vs. Paolo Nebrida
Smith last spent the last week holidaying in Dubai with the family and he took in some of the Asian Tour events as a spectator. He may have noticed Nebrida, as the Philippine national reached two finals, losing in AT 1 but winning AT 3 on Sunday.
He averaged 89.06 on Sunday, winning all of his six matches. Paolo played fifteen matches at the weekend so his is match fit and will be feeling good. Nebrida averaged 90 in a 2-3 defeat to Simon Whitlock at Ally Pally.
Nebrida shouldn’t worry Smith too much and as defending champion, Bully boy should at least be making an effort. He did drop a leg to a player averaging 63 here last year, but that may well have been a sympathetic gesture to the poor sod, who was drowning.
Nebrida is a far better player than last year’s opponent and may well be able to take a few legs off Smith, especially if he has a holiday head on.
Smith is the 1.13 favourite and Nebrida 8.50. I’ll give the outsider a chance with a decent handicap.
