Wayne Mardle: Taylor and MVG to prevail on an unmissable night of darts

30Dec 2012

We've reached the semi-final stage at Ally Pally and four of the best darts players in the world will throw tonight for a place in Tuesday's final. Wayne Mardle previews the action...

Michael van Gerwen V James Wade

Both had to fight all the way for their wins in the quarter-finals, both winning 5-4, Wade having to come from 2-0 down to get the better of West Newton, and MVG prevailing in arguably the best quarter-final ever witnessed at the World Championships.

Michael showed that the Achilles problem he has is not affecting him at all, even being up on the stage for nine sets playing at a rapid pace against the world champ Adrian Lewis couldn't stop him.

The scoring phase of Van Gerwen's game is incredible, the stats say that he will earn himself a dart at a double before Wade, in nearly every leg. That means James will be reliant on the Dutchman missing, and although he lost a few legs against Lewis due to missed doubles, I can't see him missing enough to let Wade get thet better of him.

Wade has shown a lot of character in this World Championship however having come into it having dealt with mental health issues. He showed a fighting quality against Newton that had been missing from his game for the last four months. But if he is going to win this game he's going to have to score better than he has done all tournament and hope that Michael puts in a below-par performance.

Van Gerwen is massive odds on for a reason (available to back at just 1.25), he's simply the better out of the two on current form.

Selection: Back Van Gerwen to win 6-2 @ 5.6

Phil Taylor V Raymond van Berneveld

The game's two biggest hitters over the years go head-to-head, but it's been a long time since Barney was at the top of his game when facing Taylor so this really is a mouth-watering prospect. And of course, they have just the 20 world titles between them!

This fixture has been somewhat of a mismatch over the last few years because Barney had lost his edge, lost his belief, lost his darting mojo. Well, as I've already alluded to, IT'S BACK.

The Dutchman will fancy his chances tonight and why not, if you think you can you can. He's scoring well and hitting doubles and that's why he's so confident.

But a word of caution, The Power has his number, he seems to somehow save his best for Barney, he likes beating the big man.

Phil Taylor has never lost in a World Championship semi-final, and I can't back against him here either. I wouldn't be surprised if Barney came out all guns blazing and beat The Power, but I also wouldn't be surprised if he came out and let The Power dictate proceedings.

On the basis that Taylor is far more reliable to fire in a 100+ average I think he will win, but certainly this is one game that any sports fan (never mind just fans of darts) will not want to miss.

Selection: Back Taylor to win @ 1.62