World Darts Championship: Sunday's semi-final predictions, betting tips, odds, order of play & TV times

So after all the shocks and drama, our final four includes the best two players in the world and the Premier League runner-up.

Flying the flag for the underdogs, who have created so many incredible stories and upsets throughout a largely unpredictable tournament, is debutant Nathan Aspinall. The Stockport man started out at as big as 750/1 with some bookies but now 'only' Michael Smith stands in his way tonight of a place in the final against either Michael van Gerwen or Gary Anderson.

Below I've compiled each player's tournament statistics and routes to the semi-finals as well as head-to-head records and match previews.

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World Darts Championship: Sunday December 30

EVENING SESSION

Click on the odds for more Sky Bet match markets

• TV Coverage: Sky Sports (1900 GMT)
• Semi-Finals: Best of 11 sets

Michael Smith (2/7) v Nathan Aspinall (13/5)

TOURNAMENT STATS (Smith first)

• 3-dart Average: 99.61 - 94.98
• 180s: 34 - 26
• 100+ checkouts: 6 - 7
• Highest checkout: 132 - 148
• Checkout %: 42.64% (55/129) - 37.79% (65/172)
• Sets Won/Lost: 16/5 - 19/7
• Legs Won/Lost: 55/32 - 65/46

ROUTES TO THE SEMI-FINALS

(Click here for full tournament results)

Michael Smith

• Second round: 3-1 v Ron Meulenkamp
  (Ave: 94.07, 180s: 7, Doubles: 10/20)
• Third round: 4-2 v John Henderson
  (Ave: 100.47, 180s: 9, Doubles: 16/34)
• Fourth round: 4-1 v Ryan Searle
  (Ave: 99.72, 180s: 10, Doubles: 14/29)
• Quarter-finals: 5-1 v Luke Humphries
  (Ave: 103, 180s: 8, Doubles: 15/46)

Nathan Aspinall

• First round: 3-0 v Geert Nentjes
  (Ave: 88.42, 180s: 4, Doubles: 9/27)
• Second round: 3-2 v Gerwyn Price
  (Ave: 92.28, 180s: 5, Doubles: 13/33)
• Third round: 4-1 v Kyle Anderson
  (Ave: 96.17, 180s: 6, Doubles: 13/36)
• Fourth round: 4-3 v Devon Petersen
  (Ave: 95.76, 180s: 6, Doubles: 15/39)
• Quarter-finals: 5-1 v Brendan Dolan
  (Ave: 99.72, 180s: 5, Doubles: 15/37)

HEAD-TO-HEAD

Overall: 3-1
2018 Meetings: 0-0
Career Titles: 11-1 (TV: 2-0)
2018 Titles: 3-1 (TV: 1-0)

PREVIEW

Regardless of tonight's result, Nathan Aspinall's debut has been one of the great underdog stories of this unforgettable World Championship and if the Sporting Gods have anything to do with it (assuming they exist of course) then maybe his life-changing journey can take one more giant step.

Not that he needs divine intervention anyway. The Stockport man, who headed to the Alexandra Palace ranked 71st in the world, has got here through a combination of tremendous battling spirit and sheer quality that he's now showcasing for all to see.

At 27, Aspinall has been around for a few years now without too much exposure in televised tournaments but there were recent signs that his potential would soon be realised when winning his maiden PDC Tour title back in September.

Having started out as a 750/1 'no-hoper' with some bookies pre-tournament, he's now pocketed a minimum of £100,000 which will see him rise up to the cusp of the world's top 32 and help take his career to the next level.

He averaged almost 100 in a stunning quarter-final display against Brendan Dolan, who was a potentially awkward customer, while his 4-1 triumph over the dangerous Kyle Anderson also raised eyebrows.

Either side of that match were two quite incredible comebacks, with his 3-2 win over Gerwyn Price surely going down as one of the most dramatic of the entire tournament - and not just because of to the wild atmosphere it created.

The Grand Slam of Darts winner had a match dart when leading 2-0 in sets but Aspinall never gave up and came through to send the Ally Pally wild.

He had to come from two sets down against a resurgent Devon Petersen in the fourth round but he'll need to combine that fighting spirit with the same level of quality he produced in the quarter-final to stand a chance against Michael Smith.

The Premier League and World Series of Darts Finals runner-up, who has won three titles this season, got off to a bit of a sluggish start against Ron Meulenkamp but since then he's played fantastically to charge into the last four here for the first time in a career that's surely ready to take off big time.

Smith, who I tipped at 16/1 pre-tournament, has averaged around 100 for the past three games, including a mark of 103 in a 5-1 thumping of Luke Humphries last night, while he's only dropped five sets.

The 28-year-old St Helens man would also be topping the 180s chart ahead of Gary Anderson, who has 40 compared to Smith's 34, had his matches not been quite so short by his own doing and it really seems like everything is clicking into place.

It's just a question of whether he can deal with the pressures and expectations of the occasion, but I'm confident he can.

As far as a bet is concerned, how about Smith to win the match, score over 9.5 180s and have a checkout of over 121.5 at 5/4.

Prediction: 6-3

Michael van Gerwen (8/15) v Gary Anderson (6/4)

TOURNAMENT STATS (MVG first)

• 3-dart Average: 103.38 - 98.89
• 180s: 21 - 40
• 100+ checkouts: 7 - 5
• Highest checkout: 170 - 130
• Checkout %: 45% (54/120) - 43.42% (66/152)
• Sets Won/Lost: 16/4 - 16/9
• Legs Won/Lost: 54/30 - 66/48

ROUTES TO THE SEMI-FINALS

(Click here for full tournament results)

Michael van Gerwen

• Second round: 3-1 v Alan Tabern
  (Ave: 102.59, 180s: 4, Doubles: 11/20)
• Third round: 4-1 v Max Hopp
  (Ave: 101.51, 180s: 6, Doubles: 12/34)
• Fourth round: 4-1 v Adrian Lewis
  (Ave: 108.08, 180s: 6, Doubles: 14/32)
• Quarter-finals: 5-1 v Ryan Joyce
  (Ave: 101.12, 180s: 5, Doubles: 17/34)

Gary Anderson

• Second round: 3-1 v Kevin Burness
  (Ave: 94.92, 180s: 7, Doubles: 10/27)
• Third round: 4-3 v Jermaine Wattimena
  (Ave: 97.33, 180s: 8, Doubles: 19/49)
• Fourth round: 4-3 v Chris Dobey
  (Ave: 98.75, 180s: 13, Doubles: 18/42)
• Quarter-finals: 5-2 v Dave Chisnall
  (Ave: 103.03, 180s: 12, Doubles: 19/34)

HEAD-TO-HEAD

Overall: 36-18 (2 draws)
2018 Meetings: 7-3 (Televised: 5-3)
Career Titles: 116-46 (TV: 45-16)
2018 Titles: 18-8 (TV: 4-4)

PREVIEW

Despite all the carnage of this unpredictable World Championship of shocks, we've now fittingly ended up with the most predictable of semi-finals.

Anyone who backed Michael van Gerwen at odds-against prices before the tournament began will be feeling pretty pleased with themselves right now but the acid test comes tonight.

And even if he does defeat the second best player in the world - based on general consensus rather than rankings of course - a final against likely opponent Michael Smith would be far from a walk in the park.

Nevertheless, the world number one has unsurprisingly been the standout player statistically, averaging over 100 in all four of his one-sided victories which means he's now done so in 17 straight World Championship matches dating back to when he recorded a mark of 99.03 in a first-round scare against Rene Eidams (whatever happened to him?) three years ago.

He branded parts of his performance against Ryan Joyce as 'terrible' but in truth it was only a minor wobble and he'll find it much easier to raise his levels for a high octane game with a player of Anderson's calibre - just like he did for the hyped-up affairs with Max Hopp and Adrian Lewis.

The Flying Scotsman is lucky to still be in the tournament after surviving monumental scares against Jermaine Wattimena, who missed a match dart, and Chris Dobey in two epics that'll live long in the memory but he dragged himself over the line before the real Gary Anderson turned up against Dave Chisnall.

We've seen many great duels between these all-time greats and considering several have come this year, there's no reason to expect anything less than another showstopper.

Who could forget when they both averaged 110 in a crazy Premier League clash in which MVG just missed out on a nine-darter moments before Anderson's 170 checkout.

All three of the Flying Scotsman's victories over the world number one this season have come on TV, including another Premier League clash, a pulsating Grand Slam of Darts semi-final and a Champions League of Darts encounter that ended so dramatically.

MVG, who did get his revenge in the last four of the Players Championship Finals last month prior to losing to Daryl Gurney later that same night, may have won 18 PDC titles in 2018 but he's won the same amount of televised crowns as Anderson with four apiece.

Van Gerwen's biggest prizes were the Premier League, Masters and the World Grand Prix while Anderson picked up the UK Open, World Matchplay and Champions League of Darts.

Both men, of course, would swap all of those to become the first man after Phil Taylor to win the PDC World Championship more than twice.

Overall I think van Gerwen will edge it but if you add in 180 machine Anderson to hit most maximums you can get 5/2.

If you think it'll be close but can't decide who'll win then how about 3/1 on there to be over 39.5 legs, a high checkout of over 149.5 and more than 24.5 total 180s.

Prediction: 6-4

Schedule for the rest of the tournament

Tuesday January 1
Evening Session (1900)
TV Coverage: Sky Sports Darts

• Final (Best of 13 sets)

Full World Championship draw and schedule

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