Unibet Premier League

Thursday 21st February 2019

3Arena, Dublin

With both players currently showing decent form this match was expecting to be a lot closer than the end result but unfortunately for Rob Cross he failed to settle as Michael van Gerwen stormed into a 6-0 lead. Cross rallied to win the next two legs before the Dutchman hit the winning double in the ninth leg for a 7-2 win.

The first leg could have gone either way. Van Gerwen started brightly, leaving 170 after nine darts. He then went on to miss a shot at the bull for the highest of all checkouts, hitting the 25. Cross then left himself seventy. MvG then hit a single nine and missed darts at double eight and double four. Cross hit the treble eighteen to leave sixteen. His second dart fell slightly wide of the mark and he was forced to move over to right for the third dart but over pitched it as it fell away from the target. Van Gerwen then came back to the oche, hit a single two and double one for a 17-dart opener.

Cross started the second leg with a couple of poor scores as he was unable to find a treble. Van Gerwen took advantage, eventually winning with a 100 outshot (T20, D20) in a 14-dart leg with Cross left on 102 having thrown 15 darts.

Two-nil soon became three-nil as ‘Mighty Mike’ took out a 74 finish (T14, D16) for another 14-darter with Cross back on 130. Cross would have been hopeful at getting a shot at a double in the fourth leg having left 56 after 15 darts but Van Gerwen was in a ruthless mood as he took out 88 (1, T17, D18) for a 15 darter.

A first 180 of the match from the world number one to kick things off didn’t give Cross much hope of winning the fifth leg. MvG went on to miss a dart at the bull for a 124 finish with Cross back on 285. The Hastings man hit 82 with his next throw to leave 203 with Van Gerwen coming back to hit single nine and double eight for a third 14 dart winning leg and a 5-0 lead.

After another poor opening throw of 48 from ‘Voltage’ in the next leg he seemed to find his feet, with scores of 137, 100 and 180 to leave 36. The downside was Van Gerwen had hit 140, 180 and 145 and was also on 36. The Dutchman took it in two darts (x, D18) and looked to be on for a whitewash.

Cross poked home a second maximum with his third throw of the sixth leg. It left him 165 and with Van Gerwen replying with a 140 to leave 68 it looked to be game over. Cross then hit ninety-five to leave seventy. Van Gerwen hit treble twenty but then missed two darts at double four with the final dart ricocheting into the double thirteen to bust his score. Cross stepped up, hit a single eighteen, single twenty and double sixteen for a 15-darter. The 2018 World Champion was finally on the board.

Van Gerwen had an excellent set up from 181 in the next (T20, bull, T13) to leave thirty-two, Cross missed a dart at double sixteen for a 111 finish only for MvG to come back and miss one dart at double sixteen and two at double eight. Cross returned to hit double eight for a 16-darter and to trail 6-2.

In the ninth leg Van Gerwen missed two darts at double eight for a 76 finish. Cross then missed a dart at double sixteen for a 107 finish with ‘The Green Machine’ returning to take out double four in one dart for a 16-darter and victory.

Following the match Van Gerwen said "I'm happy with the win but I'm a bit annoyed with myself, I think I could've played better as Rob could have, but maybe that was because of the pressure of playing against me.

"I can't really complain because I won the game but you have to be critical of yourself and I shouldn't have missed all those doubles at the end.

"It would be nice to win every game this season because no one has ever done that before but I think that's nearly impossible.

"People think it's easy but I have to work hard to produce performances like this, there's no time to rest and I have to perform week after week."