Michael van Gerwen was the best on Thursday evening during round five in the Premier League. After he first defeated James Wade and Joe Cullen, the darts player from Vlijmen was too strong for Michael Smith in the final. Van Gerwen also won round four last week.
Van Gerwen started the final convincingly. In the leg that Michael Smith was allowed to start, MvG threw a 106-finish. He then managed to cash in on that break. From 156 it still went wrong on the double. Smith was not yet on a finish, so Van Gerwen was allowed to come back to throw out double eighteen. He did so after two more misses with his third arrow.
Mistakes on the doubles kept Smith at a 1-3 lead in the match. But just like Van Gerwen, the Englishman also did not explain. Van Gerwen then did that from 25, so that he seemed to decide the match early. Seemed, as Smith came back to 3-4 via a break and a 126 finish. Smith then got an arrow to post another break, but it went wrong. Van Gerwen managed to repel the attack and made it 3-5.
Smith managed to keep his own leg and then put full pressure on Van Gerwen by starting with a maximum score. Mighty Mike, however, was unimpressed. He took advantage of the first chance he got to win the match. With a 4-6 win in the final, he took the win in round five of the Premier League. Thanks to the win, Van Gerwen is now also the leader in the overall standings of the prestigious tournament.
Impressive semi-final
Joe Cullen had absolutely nothing to say against Van Gerwen in the semi-final. The Englishman, who received a 6-0 victory in the quarterfinals because Gerwyn Price had to cancel with an injury, only managed to take one leg.
Van Gerwen was extremely sharp, in terms of scores and doubles. And mistakes by the opponent were immediately punished. He did the same with a 3-0 lead. Cullen was at 117 when he got no further than 23 points in one inning. Van Gerwen then dealt a hard blow by throwing out 170. After that it was actually ready.
Lots of match darts
Van Gerwen reached the semi-finals with some difficulty. Before the first game of the evening, he said he would have to hurt opponent James Wade from the start, to make sure he would ‘not get into his strength’. However, with two misses on a double, he gave Wade the ideal opportunity to start the match with a break, which the Englishman did.
Missing arrows on a double Van Gerwen then also did with a 5-4 lead. He got no less than seven match darts, but it was Wade who equalized the score. In the decisive leg, the best darts player in the Netherlands took the win via match dart number nine.