Netherlands begin World Cup defence with whitewash win over Spain, Australia edge through against Finland

Netherlands are through to the second round with ease after seeing off Spain in a whitewash win where Jermaine Wattimena was the star of the show.

Wattimena looked nervous as expected when he went onto the stage but he made it look easy in a superb debut which saw him combine well with the World Number One, Michael van Gerwen.
The Dutch team didn't play well to start the leg; but 'Machine Gun' lived up to his moniker with a rapid 108 finish. 'Mighty Mike' did his bit in the following leg following it up with a hold of throw to double their lead in the early going.
Wattimena improved even further and got more confident; he finished 60 to break the throw and send them into potentially an insurmountable lead. He added a hold of throw hitting double four to go one away.
From there, Van Gerwen in his captains role finished the job off in a seriously impressive performance. Can the Netherlands do it again or will they falter against a dangerous Poland side in Round Two??
Australia on the other hand only just came through against Finland. Simon Whitlock and Kyle Anderson have not had the best time of it as of late and this could have been a serious banana skin.
Viljanen and Kantele started off well hitting a 180 and a 14 darter to break the throw of the Aussie pair; but Anderson kept his cool to take out 86 to make it 1-1.
He improved their lead further with a 70 finish but Finland claimed back to back legs to answer the question of the side and break in the process at 3-2 up.
Anderson continued to anchor the team though pinning double 5 to make it 4-3. A decider though was needed but Australia were up to the task hitting two 140's in the leg to produce when it mattered.
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Friday schedule (play starts 1800 BST)
China (76.06) 1-5 (79.21) USA
Italy (95.47) 3-5 (97.56) Canada
Poland (92.33) 5-2 (84.11) Czech Republic
Republic of Ireland (87.24) 5-1 (84.28) Greece
England (91.53) 5-1 (87.59) Philippines
Austria (92.87) 5-3 (95.12) Russia
Australia (86.68) 5-4 (85.31) Finland
Netherlands (92.78) 5-0 (84.85) Spain
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