PDC Masters Round 2 – Gary Anderson vs. Adrian Lewis

Adrian Lewis landed our most 180’s bet against Michael Smith and won the match 6-5 to advance to PDC Masters Round 2. It was a strange game with Smith being brilliant on his combination out shots which included two 170’s and four ton plus checkouts in total but he was letting Lewis win legs with 17 and 18 dart legs. It was a decent performance from Lewis, it would have been easy to throw in the towel after those big out shots against him, but he took advantage when Smith didn’t fire and stole the match.

This is the start of Anderson big comeback year. He is going to put the work in, play in all the UK based events, win titles and the World Championship. Adrian Lewis has said something similar, amongst others. Anderson ended 2020 as runner up in the World Championship and he kept himself in the top 10. He has a 30-20 H2H record over Lewis and is the 1.45 favourite to improve on that.

Jackpot Must Improve

Lewis averaged 96.95 last night which is very decent, but he won with legs of 18,11,17,17,14,18 and that might not be enough to beat Anderson, so long as The Scotsman isn’t rusty, which he shouldn’t be given his pledge to make 2021 his year. He has only lost one opening match here since 2015 which suggests that he does have a bit of credence for the tournament. They met twice last year with Anderson winning both 7-3 and 6-5.

Both players are old school and like a good pace of play. That should allow both to get into a rhythm and play their better stuff. Anderson is the better player and should win but he does make hard work of things at times.

 PDC Masters Round 2: 1 point over 16.5 legs @ 1.85 with Ladbrokes

 PDC Masters Round 2: 0.5 point Gary Anderson to win 10-8 @ 9.00 with Hills

Peter Wright vs. Simon Whitlock

Another old school clash, albeit with crazy hair. The Wizard was very solid against Ratajski last night, winning 6-2, averaging 97.9 with 40% on the doubles. However, it was a bit hot and cold with winning legs of 10,12 and 13, along with 17,18 and 23. Ratajski wasn’t great on his doubles and let Whitlock have a couple legs which he shouldn’t have. Still a win is a win, and he has won seven of his last ten.

Snakebite fizzled out at the end of 2020 but it was still a good year overall. He has got involved with a silly bit of mind games with MVG. Last year he said MVG had no chance at the World Championship, saying that only he of Price could win it. He was half right but MVG was by far the better player compared to Wright. To start this year, he says he is looking forward to beating MVG in all the semi-finals they are due to meet in and he is just priming MVG to thrash him.

Wright Needs To Focus

Before Wright can think about meeting MVG, he has to beat Whitlock. He has done plenty of times before, the last being a 6-1 win at the Players Championship finals at the end of November. Wright was interviewed recently and didn’t give the impression that he had prepared especially well for this. He has had his feet up after his early exit at Ally Pally and hadn’t even decided which darts he will use.

Wright is the 1.44 favourite to win which seems a little short given that Whitlock had a good 2020 and is still very positive about his game. On the other hand, Snakebite has never lost an opening match in this tournament at this venue and is defending champion.

They have met 15 times on TV with Wright winning nine, Whitlock five and one draw. In first to ten format matches on TV, Whitlock has won five, Wright one.  Five of those first to ten matches ended 10-6 or 10-7 and Whitlock only failed to get over 7.5 legs once.

PDC Masters Round 2: 1 point Simon Whitlock to win more than 7.5 legs @ 2.00 with Ladbrokes

PDC Masters Round 2 – Gerwyn Price vs. Joe Cullen

An interesting matchup. The new World Champion and world number 1 vs. an in form and confident Cullen. The Cullen vs. Bunting match lived up to the hype and it was the best match of the night with both players averaging over the ton and Cullen winning all his legs with 15 darts or fewer. If he keeps that up, Price will need to come out with his A game.

They last met in the quarter final of the Players Championship finals which ended in a 10-9 win for Price. Something similar would be no surprise.

Price is the 1.44 favourite with Cullen a 3.00 shot. Cullen is definitely in with a chance here. He is in good form, winning six of his last eight and those two defeats where in that deciding leg loss to Price in the Players, and a deciding set loss to MVG at the World Championship. His problem is that Price has won nine of his last ten, including that win over Cullen.

PDC Masters Round 2: 1 point over 16.5 legs @ 1.91 with Ladbrokes, Boylesports

PDC Masters Round 2: 0.5 point Gerwyn Price to win 10-9 @ 9.00 generally available

Michael van Gerwen vs. Jonny Clayton

These two met not long ago at the Players Championship finals where it was MVG who was an easy 6-4 winner. Before that, their last televised meeting was here last year, when MVG, armed with new Winmau darts, lost 4-6 to Clayton. This year MVG will be using another new set of Winmau darts. Because it is a non-ranking event, players do tend to use this event to give new equipment a live firing exercise, without the pressure of it affecting their ranking.

The Ferret had a decent season in 2020. He was runner up in the German Darts Championship, a semi-finalist in the European Championship and he won the World Cup of Darts alongside Gerwyn Price. His form tailed of that that hot spell and he has won five of his last ten matches.

MVG In Strong Form

MVG ended last season as the world number two and lost the quarter final of the World Championship to Dave Chisnall. However, he averaged 103 at Ally Pally, better than anyone else and he has won nine of his last ten matches. He isn’t in poor form, quite the opposite. He has an 11-4 H2H record over Clayton and so long as he doesn’t have a mental block using his new kit, he should win this match.

Clayton played very well last night, beating Jose De Sousa 6-5 and averaging 102.9. He should have won it easier than that, letting a couple of legs slip through his fingers but he won his legs with 14,13,13,14,16 and 12 dart legs. If he can keep that standard going tonight, then he is in with a live chance purely on merit, if MVG starts to doubt himself, which he was doing more often in 2020, or doubting his new darts, or both, then his chances are improved.

MVG is the 1.26 favourite with Clayton a 4.50 shot. I can see Clayton giving MVG a match. It is a worry that that he has been struggling to string two wins together recently and that might be his weakness, but MVG is bound to be a bit nervous and if put under pressure, Clayton will get chances.

PDC Masters Round 2: 1 point Jonny Clayton to win +3.5 legs @ 2.00 generally available

-JamesPunt