Darts World Championship Final Preview: Littler out to secure dream win

Following an all-English semi-final for the first time since 2006, new sensation Luke Littler takes on current world number three Luke Humphries in the final of the PDC World Darts Championship.

We preview the final below.

Littler dream continues

Luke Littler displayed shedloads of maturity and confidence beyond his years in last night’s performance against 2018 World Championship winner, Rob Cross, where he dispatched his opponent six legs to two. Littler got off to a shaky start losing the first set, but seemed to settle in with the nerves falling by the wayside as he turned it on which saw his averages go from 103.18 in the first set to 116.14 in the final set.

Once Littler found his rhythm there was nothing stopping him, hitting sixteen match 180s, with an almost 47% checkout strike rate, the highest of which being a 149. Littler’s 22 legs against Cross’s 15 speaks volumes about his performance, which should fill him with confidence going into the final, having been seeded 164th in the world at the start of the competition.

Luke Humphries will be no means a walk in the park and coming fresh off a 6-0 win in the semi-final against Scott Williams he will be firing on all cylinders in the final. In the semi-final, Humphries recorded an average of 121.86 in the fifth set, where he also had an 100% checkout rate winning three legs to nil.

Humphries’ performance was that of a veteran, completely outplaying Scott Williams and oozing class each time he stepped up to the oche. Whether or not he will bring the same calibre of darts to the final remains to be seen, but what we learnt from both semi-finals is that we have two worthy contenders who are both more than capable of taking home the trophy.

The final clash

Luke Humphries goes into the final as the odds-on favourite at 8/11, meanwhile the unlikely contender Luke Littler is at 11/10 to overcome the odds and win what would be an fairytale first major. Littler could walk home with a cool £500,000 if he comes out victorious, or worst case, £200,000 as runner-up!

The obvious questions surrounding the younger player consist of whether or not he will succumb to the pressure or thrive under it. He seems to be a crowd-pleaser and has become a fan-favourite over the duration of this competition; however, last night’s semi-final saw him look nervous for the first time in the opening set and took a bit of time to find his rhythm. Against an opponent such as Luke Humphries there will be no room to lose out on a set due to nerves. As we saw in the semis Humphries has no issue with ruthlessly running away with the match and that will be the worry for Littler.

With a combined thirty match 180s in the semis, William Hill have priced Over 38 180s & Over 7 Checkouts Over 99 at 6/1 in the final, considering it is first to seven sets, there will be plenty of opportunity for the two players to throw perfect darts over and over, especially if they go set for set all the way through. Luke Littler has only conceded six sets in his Championship campaign and Humphries has only conceded seven, so both players won’t be willing to tarnish their respective gleaming records in the competition thus far. Chances are we’re locking in for a real thriller.

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