What a performance from Devon Petersen at the World Cup of Darts in Hamburg!
The Unicorn star led South Africa to a stunning upset win over Gary Anderson and Scotland to see his country into the quarter-finals!
And South Africa will be joined in the last eight by the England duo of Phil Taylor and Adrian Lewis, Australia with Team Unicorn’s Paul Nicholson at the helm and Raymond van Barneveld’s quest for a second successive World Cup triumph with Holland is still alive.
But Petersen was the star of the show on Saturday afternoon in Germany.
The South Africans had to win the doubles match to force a one leg shoot-out and when the Scottish pair of Anderson and Peter Wright established a 3-1 lead, it looked out of the question.
However, they hadn’t bargained for the brilliance of Petersen, who hit three 180s and a 101 finish as he and partner Shawn Hogan did the business.
It went to that sudden death shoot-out and although the Unicorn youngster won the bull by hitting the bull, Gary Anderson’s first 180 looked like winning it for Scotland.
But Peter Wright missed two darts to win it for the No.4 seeds and Hogan nailed D6 to clinch an upset victory for South Africa.
It was just as dramatic as England used their ‘get out of jail free’ card to edge out Canada....it was the same scenario for Taylor and Lewis, who had to win the doubles to force a shoot-out.
That they did by 5 legs to 3 after Lewis hit two 180s....Taylor crucially won the bull and a crucial 140 from Lewis made all the difference and the World Champion took out D4 to win it.
They will now take on USA in the quarter-finals.....Germany missed three match darts, only for Darin Young to win a last leg decider with a 106 finish to take America through.
Barneveld and Vincent van der Voort won their doubles clash against the Austrian duo of Mensur Suljovic and Dietmar Burger to set up a quarter-final against Northern Ireland.
Barney looks like he means business again and was impressive as the Dutch coasted to a 5-2 victory.
Australia again looked strong.....Unicorn ace Paul Nicholson and Simon Whitlock reached the semi-finals of the inaugural World Cup of Darts 14 months ago and look like they will again challenge for the trophy here in Hamburg.
The Aussies were emphatic 5-2 winners to complete a clean sweep over the Republic of Ireland and they will now face Belgium in those quarter-finals.
“We work very well as a team,” Nicholson said. “And if we carry on playing like that, we have a great chance. This is about Australia and winning the trophy, not about Paul Nicholson and at the moment, we are very confident.”
Saturday 2nd Round doubles results:
Northern Ireland 5-4 Denmark
Belgium 5-2 Sweden
Australia 5-2 Republic of Ireland
Wales 5-1 Croatia
Germany 4-5 USA
Scotland 4-6 South Africa (won sudden-death leg)
England 6-3 Canada (won sudden-death leg)
Netherlands 5-2 Austria
Saturday night Quarter-Finals (2xsingles, 1xdoubles – all best of 7 legs):
Australia v Belgium
Wales v South Africa
England v USA
Northern Ireland v Holland
By STUART PYKE at the World Cup of Darts
Photo courtesy Lawrence Lustiig / PDC