Michael van Gerwen did not win a match day in the Premier League for the third time this season on Thursday evening. He lost 6-5 to Joe Cullen in the final in Ahoy in front of his own audience.
Van Gerwen was better in scoring in the opening phase of the final, but Cullen showed that he was on target in the finish. The first six legs went ‘with the arrows’. At the seventh leg, for the first time, the darter who was allowed to start the leg did not win. Van Gerwen got one arrow on double twenty. And that was enough, he took the lead for the first time in the game: 4-3.
In the next leg Van Gerwen got three arrows to cash in on the break. From double twenty, however, he did not manage to take a 5-3 lead. Cullen made good use of the misses, as a result of which he was able to tie the score again.
Not much later Cullen Van Gerwen hurt a lot. De Brabander threw an arrow wrong on double sixteen, then the Englishman threw a 114 finish. And in doing so, he ensured that he only had to win one of the last two legs to take the stage win in the Premier League.
Van Gerwen came back to 5-5. It was Cullen who got to start the decisive leg. And he did that impressively, starting with six perfect darts. He therefore gave himself enough space to write the leg in his name. In the fourth match dart it was hit, as a result of which he was able to win round 7 in the Premier League.
“It’s not a disappointing evening,” said Van Gerwen in front of Viaplay’s camera. “I just got three points for the Premier League ranking. That’s the most important. Of course you want to win, but there are so many more weeks. Then next week.” Van Gerwen, supported all evening by the orange legion present, is still first in the ranking after the seventh round.
Road to final
In his first game of the evening, Van Gerwen crawled through the eye of the needle. He was well on his way to the win against Michael Smith, but saw the Englishman come back from a 5-3 deficit. In the decisive leg, Smith got two match darts, but they went wrong – accompanied by cheers and whistles from the Dutch darts fans present. Van Gerwen then took the win via double four.
‘MvG’ finished the game with an average of just over 85, his lowest in any Premier League game he has played in his career. The semi-final went a lot better for Van Gerwen, who finished with an average of over 103. After both men had won three legs, Mighy Mike quickly walked away from Jonny Clayton. With a 138 finish, he won the match (6-3) and thus reached the final.