Van Gerwen started stiff, missed some doubles, and saw Price quickly reach 3-0. In the final, however, it was a long-term ride, with ‘first to 18’ as the starting point. The fourth leg was quite painful for Van Gerwen, because although he threw more than decent scores, he was unable to throw a leg. Price therefore had plenty of time to also reach 4-0.
Van Gerwen’s scores were unprecedented, but his finishes caused frustration
World Match Play
First double
In the fifth leg, the Dutchman’s first double was finally a fact, with which he immediately broke his opponent from Wales. In fact, Van Gerwen’s first leg won was almost a nine-darter, were it not for the fact that he needed two darts for his finish. Coming out of the break with a break in his pocket, Van Gerwen continued to throw sky-high averages, and immediately came to 4-2. In the meantime he continued to string the 180s together, but the finish was still very difficult. Van Gerwen Price, for example, was well behind at 4-3, but was unable to finish, making it 5-3 instead of 4-4.
‘Ice Man’ ice cold
With that score, the question was whether Price would match Van Gerwen’s averages, or whether Van Gerwen would finish at the level of the Welshman. Price, however, kept calm to his favorite ‘tops’ and mercilessly took every chance he got from ‘Mighty Mike’. At the start of the second break, however, it was 6-4, and although that was a better score than during the first break, Van Gerwen could not possibly be really satisfied.
Price finished very strong
World Match Play
The ejection of Price must have almost driven Van Gerwen to despair, because The Iceman stayed razor sharp at double twenty. Van Gerwen seemed to bow, but had a wonderful finish with a single bull and double bull. Moreover, he broke his opponent in the last leg before the intermezzo, so that the damage was still limited with 9-6.
In the remainder of the game, the Dutchman remained on the checkline with Price. He almost never ran into problems on his own legs, but he barely managed to close the gap with one or more breaks. That changed at 11-9, when Price simply walked away but didn’t actually finish. Van Gerwen smelled blood and did break now.
very strong lock
Van Gerwen came alongside in the 24th leg of the match. Price collapsed completely at 12-11, making the Brit’s once comfortable lead suddenly disappear like snow in the sun. There was no real turnaround yet, because Van Gerwen just missed a finish of 84.
The scores also dropped from both sides, but Van Gerwen did finish better. Price got harder and harder and it showed in the score. So it became 13-13 and 14-14, and at that moment Van Gerwen took the lead for the first time.
With that, the fence was immediately completely off the dam. Van Gerwen was unstoppable, didn’t give a leg anymore and was the immediate winner of the match with his first match dart.