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PDC World Darts Championship 2024: Day 15 semi-final predictions, betting tips, acca, order of play and TV time

By Chris Hammer

Darts

Tue January 02, 2024 · 1y ago

The Paddy Power World Darts Championship semi-finals take place on Tuesday night so check out Chris Hammer's match-by-match predictions, best bets and suggested acca.

Darts betting tips: World Championship day 15

1pt Cross to win and Littler hit most 180s at 5/2 (Sky Bet)

1pt Humphries to win -3.5 sets and average 100+ at 2/1 (Sky Bet)

1pt 26+ match 180s and 5+ 100 checkouts in Williams v Humphries at 5/2 (Sky Bet)

SL Double: Cross and Humphries (-3.5 sets) both to win at 3/1 with Sky Bet

Sky Bet odds | Paddy Power | Betfair Sportsbook

http://media.paddypower.com/redirect.aspx?pid=13194133&bid=7330

EVENING SESSION

TV Coverage: Sky Sports, 1930 GMT
Format: Semi-finals, best of 11 sets

Rob Cross (11/10) v Luke Littler (4/6)

World Championship stats

Three Dart Average: 98.92 – 100.29
180s (per leg): 26 (0.28) – 34 (0.36)
Checkout %: 49.12% - 43.97%
100+ Checkouts (Per Leg Won): 6 (10.7%) - 8 (12.9%)
Match Treble % (Win, Most 180’s & High Checkout): 75% - 40%

Everyone in the world of darts knew Luke Littler had the potential to be a star, but I doubt anyone genuinely expected to shine this brightly so early in his career on his Ally Pally debut at the age of just 16.

It's just insane isn't it. Not just the actual ability levels, but the way he revels in the atmosphere and calmly deals with all the press and media attention that comes his way. It genuinely looks as though he's been playing big-stage darts for years.

I've been there first hand to see him deal with a huge pack of journalists peppering him with questions and he just smiles and answers so eloquently. Nothing fazes him.

LUKE LITTLER BEATS HIS IDOL AT THE PDC WORLD DARTS CHAMPIONSHIP

Last night he rocked up on stage and savagely destroyed a player who Gerwyn Price and Gary Anderson found too awkward to deal with. I know Brendan Dolan isn't a formidable, multi-major winning force - but he's always talked up as a 'spoiler' who almost always makes life difficult for his opponents in defeat. Instead, Littler made Dolan look like a star-struck journeyman.

I can't get my head round the fact that he's averaged over 100 in three of his five matches - and in his last two he managed it by playing 24 or 25 legs up on that stage. This is gruelling, long format darts. We saw him post those numbers in short format stuff in the Modus Super Series and other tournaments, but this is completely different. His overall average of 100.29 is from 99 legs of darts.

To put it into a bit of perspective, Gerwyn Price has only managed five 100+ match averages on the Ally Pally stage in his entire career. His opponent tonight, Rob Cross, has done it seven times since making his debut in the 2017 edition.

His best average of 106.12 and his second highest of 105.01 are virtually on a par with the highest Adrian Lewis, Peter Wright and Michael Smith have managed - and both exceed Price's PB of 104.20.

IS LUKE LITTLER THE NEXT PHIL TAYLOR AND WILL HE BE IN THE PREMIER LEAGUE?

But, and this is genuinely not taking anything away from how incredible he's been, the draw has been kind. Probably as kind as it will ever be if he plays this game until he's 50.

This is no disrespect to anyone he's played, but how many players get to a World Championship semi-final by only playing opponents ranked 20 or lower?

Andrew Gilding was the highest ranked opponent at 20 - and actually gave him the closest game by winning eight of the 17 legs played in a 3-1 defeat - with Raymond van Barneveld (27) and Dolan (29) the other seeded players in his path. To think this was a quarter that also included James Wade, Peter Wright, Price and Gary Anderson. This is almost Emma Raducanu-like when you think how her draw remarkably opened up.

Rob Cross is his first 'proper' world-class test. A former World Champion, World Matchplay and two-time European Championship king, who is statistically among the top performers on the PDC circuit this season and showed absolute nerves of steel to produce one of the greatest Ally Pally comebacks ever seen against red-hot Chris Dobey on New Year's Day.

His tournament average isn't much shy of Littler's and he too his growing in confidence that he can reach the top of this mountain once again.

I'd love to see someone put Littler under some kind of proper elite-level pressure and Cross should be that player. Especially if he's as deadly on his doubles again. We'll either see an otherworldly response from the 16-year-old that will blow our minds again, or he'll finally show us he's human at the end of a magical fairytale run.

I'm going to be a boring realist and opt for the latter, with Littler throwing more 180s due to his statistical dominance in that area - but I'll be happy to watch in wonder if I'm wrong.

Prediction: 6-4

CLICK HERE to back Cross to win and Littler hit most 180s with Sky Bet

Scott Williams (7/2) v Luke Humphries (1/6)

World Championship stats

Three Dart Average: 93.97 – 97.23
180s (per leg): 37 (0.33) – 36 (0.35)
Checkout %: 45% - 37.04%
100+ Checkout (Per Leg Won): 11 (17.4%) - 5 (8.3%)
Match Treble % (Win, Most 180’s & High Checkout): 0% - 25%

Most people expected Luke Humphries to be in the semi-finals but huge credit to anyone who thought his opponent would be Scott Williams.

I doubt anyone even predicted this semi-final before last night as Michael van Gerwen prepared for his 'New Year's Day dessert' - but the three-time champion forgot to check the sell by date and Williams made him sick.

As much as MVG was off his game with an average of 93.41, Shaggy showed superb composure to make the most of it in the biggest match of his life and deserves a lot of credit for that. His average of 96.32 was his best performance of the tournament and he also produced another clinical display on his doubles with 41%.

That has been the key to his surprisingly lengthy run at the Ally Pally, which comes off the back of a very mediocre season, while he's also won 17% of his legs with roof-raising 100+ checkouts.

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Unfortunately for him, Humphries seems to have got his poor displays out of the way and last night the real Cool Hand turned up to take a firm grip of a tournament that he was favourite for at the start.

Humphries, who has won three of the last four majors, got off to an underwhelming start against Lee Evans then had to produce a herculean comeback with the wrong darts in a bear-pit atmosphere against Ricardo Pietreczko. But even that paled into insignificance compared to the bottle he had to show to edge past Joe Cullen in an absolute match of the ages.

After surviving those scares, he left nothing to chance in the quarter-finals as he blew Dave Chisnall away 5-1 with an average of 103.50 and that's the kind of display that has helped him achieve such incredible success in 2023.

Now he's finally on a roll, I would expect a similar kind of performance in a relatively one-sided victory.

You may think that the kind of scoreline I've predicted will make it difficult for my other tip to come in: 26+ 180s and 5+ 100 checkouts. However, bear in mind these players are both prolific maximum hitters, with Humphries managing 12 of them in six sets last night and Williams firing the same number in eight.

Williams has the best 100+ checkout record in the tournament so far and a player of Humphries' ability is always ready to go ton+ out crazy.

Prediction: 2-6