Ridiculous And Sublime From Phil Taylor At Premier League Darts
Written 7 months ago by Will O'Callaghan
Phil Taylor won seven legs in a row to beat Gary Anderson 7-4 but then suffered a heavy loss to Dave Chisnall on a night in Belfast when Premier League Darts leader Michael van Gerwen thrashed birthday boy Raymond van Barneveld.
The Power looked on cause for a big defeat in his opening match as Anderson cruised into a 4-0 lead, taking no more than 15 darts to win any of the legs.
But suddenly the six-time Premier League champion, competing in his final season before retirement, burst into life and started to find the treble 20 bed with ruthless consistency.
Remarkably, Taylor allowed the Scotsman just one shot at a finish – and that was at the bullseye – over the course of the next seven legs of the match as he claimed a memorable two points which moved him up to third.
However, he was later unable to back that display up and further consolidate his play-off bid as he lost 7-2 to Chisnall, who celebrated his second win of the night having beaten Adrian Lewis 7-3 earlier.
Chizzy headed to the SSE Arena bottom of the standings with just eight points but he averaged around 104 in two superb performances to give himself an outside chance of finishing in the top four.
Van Gerwen maintained his firm grip of top spot with a commanding 7-2 victory over his Dutch rival van Barneveld, who was unable to celebrate his 50th birthday in style.
The world number one’s unbeaten run was ended by Barney in Manchester earlier in the season but there was to be no famous double as the veteran struggled to get anywhere near his best except for a 140 checkout in the second leg.
Peter Wright didn’t need to be at his best to inflict a 7-3 defeat on a below-par James Wade as he strengthaned his grip on second place.
Last week Snakebite threw away a 5-1 lead to draw with Michael van Gerwen before losing to Gary Anderson, but he got his campaign back on track in a match which did little to entertain the crowd.
Below is a full statistical breakdown of each match as well as player reaction while we also rank their performances at the bottom of this article as well as provide the updated Premier League table.
Image – Alex Pantling/Getty Images Europe
