First Round – Sunday, December 15th
Best of Five Sets
Brendan Dolan booked his spot at the World Championships courses of a high finish on the Pro Tour Order of Merit. The Northern Ireland star was fourth there. So he will be heading into the first-round action at the Alexandra Palace on the weekend. He goes as the red hot favourite to progress past opponent Nitin Kumar.
Brendan Dolan v Nitin Kumar Odds*
Dolan 1/12
Kumar 7/1
* (betting odds taken from bet365 on December 13th, 2019 at 2:58 pm)
Dolan can make progress
This is right at the top of the second quarter of the PDC Darts World Championship 2020 draw. The prize for getting through this first-round battle will be to take on fifth-seed Gary Anderson in the second round. Given that the Scotsman has had considerable struggles this season, there would be a decent chance of an upset happening in a second-round meeting.
Dolan should be winning a fixture like this. In the last edition, he produced his best ever effort at a PDC Darts World Championship as he reached the quarter-finals where he lost to Nathan Aspinall. He hasn’t been beyond the fourth round of any televised event this year, but the ‘History Maker’ should take this win.
India’s Nitin Kumar has been on the PDC since 2015. The Royal Bengal will be taking place in the PDC Darts World Championship for just the second time in his career. He lost in the first round against Jeffrey de Zwaan on his debut in 2019. Once again he did win the Indian Qualifier to take his place at the Ally Pally.
Prediction
This should be a fairly comfortable entry into the tournament of Dolan who is at 12/5 to take a 3-1 correct score* (betting odds taken from bet365 on December 13th, 2019 at 2:58 pm). It’s just worth backing Kimar to get on set on the board at least as he did manage too in his first-round match last season.
