World Matchplay 2019 Final Preview – Sunday, July 28th at 7.15 pm
A thrilling World Matchplay 2019 will draw to a close on Sunday night. It will be the fifth seed Michael Smith taking on second seed Rob Cross. It has been impressive stuff from both of them along the way to the final two. Neither of these two have been to the final of the tournament before. Which will handle the pressure better?
Michael Smith v Rob Cross Odds*
Robb Cross 8/11
Michael Smith 11/10
* (betting odds taken from bet365 on July 27th, 2019 at 11:29 pm)
Can Cross lift the World Matchplay title?
Former World Champion Rob Cross is the favourite for the final. It has been a decent season from Voltage overall in the major events, having reached the final of the UK Open and the Premier League Final. So this is his third final on the bounce now in the big PDC events of the calendar year. He did get something of a favourable draw, not meeting a seeded player in any of the first three rounds. He was comfortable in the first two, before having to dig just a little deeper to beat Stephen Bunting 16-14 in the quarter-finals.
Then in the semi-final, he went up against third seed Daryl Gurney. Gurney has just beaten the in-form Peter Wright in the previous round and SuperChin was looking a threat. But Cross just had the advantage over the longer match, taking a 17-15 win. The scoring of Cross has been great and his 3-dart average at the tournament is 99.19. He also boasts a 43% checkout route compared to Smith’s 38%. Will Voltage win his first-ever World matchplay?
Head to head
There has been plenty of previous meetings between the two finalists. There is a clear picture though of favouritism when you look back at those previous meetings. Cross leads the head to head over Smith 12-3.
Will Michael Smith be able to beat Cross?
Smith has impressed in this tournament and he just hasn’t taken his eye off the ball. He took a 10-7 opening win over Jamie Hughes and then beat Max Hopp 12-10. He then got a comfortable win on the board over Mervyn King in the quarterfinals, Smith was just confidently and quietly ticking off the matches, scoring very well. In the semifinals, he was the one tasked with taking on Glen Durrant who had had such a brilliant tournament. Durrant had beaten Adrian Lewis, Michael van Gerwen and James Wade on his way to the semi-finals.
But Smith was just methodical, upped his scoring output and never give Duzza a look at the match win. Smith collected a 17-10 victory in the fixture. The scoring of Smith has been great, although he trails Rob Cross by four in the tournament 180’s scored, no player in the entire tournament has rattled off more 140+ scores than Smith has done. If you look at the stats between Cross and Smith through this tournament they are very close in just about everything. The one area perhaps which could be telling in that Smith hasn’t been as sharp with is checkouts. A big moment for Bully Boy then. Can he upset the odds?
Predictions
Cross has looked very good and did a tremendous demolition job on Glen Durrant where other top players had failed against Duzza at Blackpool. The extra edge that Cross should have in the check out can see him take the win. Over the longer matches, you can generally rely on Cross to get better. Cross -2.5 handicap at 6/5 odds takes our fancy* (betting odds taken from bet365 on July 27th, 2019 at 11:29 pm)
