Gerwyn Price (Picture: Lawrence Lustig/PDC)

World Matchplay darts: Semi-final predictions, odds, betting tips, accas, order of play & TV times

By Sporting Life

Darts

Sun July 31, 2022 · 4y ago

The Betfred World Matchplay semi-finals take place in Blackpool on Saturday night so check out our match-by-match preview and tips.

The Winter Gardens showpiece draws to a close this weekend but who will make the final out of Dimitri Van den Bergh, Michael van Gerwen, Danny Noppert and Gerwyn Price?

Here, we look at both matches with seasonal statistics, predictions, best bests and an acca…

Darts betting tips: World Matchplay day eight

1pt Gerwyn Price to hit 10+ 180's and 1+ 100+ checkout at 3/1 (Sky Bet)

1pt Danny Noppert to hit 11+ 180's & 1+ 100+ checkout at 5/2 (Sky Bet)

1pt Michael van Gerwen to win and Dimitri Van den Bergh to hit most 180s at 9/4 (Sky Bet)

SL Acca: Over 20.5 180s in Price v Noppert & over 19.5 180s in VDB v MVG at 4/1 with Sky Bet

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World Matchplay: Saturday July 23

Venue: Winter Gardens, Blackpool
TV Coverage: Sky Sports (1900 BST)
Format: Semi-finals, best of 33 legs. Each game must be won by two clear legs, with up to a maximum of five additional legs being played before the sixth additional leg is sudden-death

Gerwyn Price (1/2) v Danny Noppert (6/4)

Overall H2H: 4-3 (TV: 1-1)
2022: 1-0 (TV: 0-0)
Seasonal Average
Price: 96.37
Noppert: 94.85
180s per leg in 2022
Price: 0.26
Noppert: 0.28
Checkout % in 2022 (Stage events only)
Price: 41.03%
Noppert: 38.49%
100+ checkouts per leg won
Price: 15.96%
Noppert: 12.33%
Match Treble % in all comps (Win, most 180s, highest checkout)
Price: 25.84%
Noppert: 27.66%

The real Gerwyn Price is back.

After reminding us all of his supreme battling qualities at the start of the week during two hard-fought victories over Martin Schindler and Dave Chisnall, the Iceman produced a blockbusting 105 average over 30 legs of thrilling darts to overcome Jose de Sousa 16-14 and reach the World Matchplay semi-finals for the first time in his career.

It just goes to show what a little bit of confidence and momentum can do for a player like Price, who will now replace Peter Wright at the top of the world rankings regardless of what happens this weekend.

He admitted earlier in the week that his poor form over the past few months had caused doubts to creep into his game but we can all sense his old bulletproof belief is beginning to flood back.

Price will need to maintain such a standard when he comes up against the unflappable Danny Noppert, who put fellow Dutchman Dirk van Duijvenbode to the sword in the closing stages of his 16-11 victory last night.

Noppie, who averaged 98, won the last four legs just when everyone was expecting a tense finish and closed the deal with a superb 121 checkout when his opponent was waiting on 47 to keep the match alive.

The UK Open champion's wins have all come with room to spare having also brushed aside Brendan Dolan and Daryl Gurney in previous rounds so this will surely be his toughest test yet.

He boasts a slightly higher 180 per leg ratio than Price this season while he's hit 22 maximums in 58 legs this week (0.38 per leg) compared to the Welshman's 22 in 67 (0.32) so if we see a similar trend in a close match of around 30 legs tonight then both players should be able to reach double figures.

They've also been hitting 100+ checkouts pretty frequently, with Noppert managing seven and Price weighing in with four.

As far as picking a winner, if Price continues this upward curve of momentum then he'll reach the final but Noppert is becoming more dangerous than ever and will be ready to punish any weakness.

Predicted Scoreline: 17-14

Dimitri Van Den Bergh (11/10) v Michael van Gerwen (4/6)

Overall H2H: 1-9, 1 draw (TV: 0-1, 1 draw)
2022: 0-2 (TV: 0-0)
Seasonal Average
Van den Bergh: 96.22
MVG: 98.48
180s per leg in 2022
Van den Bergh: 0.32
MVG: 0.26
Checkout % in 2022 (Stage events only)
Van den Bergh: 40.94%
MVG: 38.29%
100+ checkouts per leg won
Van den Bergh: 10.56%
MVG: 13.46%
Match Treble % in all comps (Win, most 180s, highest checkout)
Van den Bergh: 29.07%
MVG: 29.36%

Michael van Gerwen is one win away from reaching his first World Matchplay final since he won the second of his two Winter Gardens titles way back in 2016 but standing in his way is a player who many are tipping as a future world number one.

MVG will be hoping to return to the summit much quicker than Dimitri Van den Bergh gets there for the first time and he's certainly shown enough signs that he could well be lifting the Phil Taylor Trophy on Sunday night.

Sure, there had been concerns over his rustiness ahead of Blackpool having played just one match since surgery on his injured hand and although he only averaged 89 in a sluggish victory over Adrian Lewis in round one, he upped his game significantly to dispatch Joe Cullen 11-5 and Nathan Aspinall 16-14 with averages of 97.12 and 101.86 respectively.

That latter triumph, which included a barrage of 12 180s, would have been far more resounding had he not gone off the boil from 15-10 up but he got there in the end with a show-stopping 146 checkout despite a chorus of boos.

Van den Bergh came through a titanic tussle against Peter Wright to get here via the same scoreline but after he'd sensationally won 10 legs in a row to lead 11-5, few expected it to reach a 30th leg.

Wright's comeback ended when he missed two darts for a 14-12 advantage as the Belgian took out a pivotal 96 checkout for an 11-darter that thrust him towards the finishing line. That showed a lot of bottle, character and quality in equal measures.

The 2020 champion, who was runner-up 12 months ago on his Winter Gardens debut, averaged 102 while his 11 maximums took his tournament tally to 22 in 59 legs (0.37 per leg) compared to MVG's 21 in 63 (0.33 per leg).

Meanwhile, the head-to-head record shows a real dominance in MVG's favour but bare in mind both meetings this season were close ones on the European Tour, with the Dutchman winning the European Darts Open final 8-5 and the German Darts Championship semi-final 7-6 en route to one of his six titles this year.

I'm siding with MVG to come out on top but Van den Bergh to hit the most maximums.

Predicted Scoreline: 14-17