PDC World Cup of Darts 2019 preview and schedule: Sunday 9 June, afternoon session

It's hard to pick a highlight. William O'Connor's incredible performance against Rob Cross, perhaps. Maybe it was Mensur Suljovic's brilliance, or New Zealand pulling it out of the bag in the doubles. Actually, come to think of it, the highlight was absolutely seeing Harith Lim celebrating a Paul Lim 160 checkout before the elder Lim had even thrown at tops. More of that in the Sunday afternoon session, please. We're a step closer to knowing the 2019 PDC World Cup of Darts champions.

The World Cup of Darts is meant to give unfancied nations a chance. Normally it doesn't pan out. But the fact that New Zealand are playing Japan for a semi-final berth shows that this tournament has plenty of underdog value. New Zealand have never even reached a quarter-final. Cody Harris and Haupai Puha have proved an excellent side - with Harris the star so far. Japan have been here twice, and lost twice. But they're the favourites this time. Seigo Asada and Haruki Muramatsu were both calm and collected in singles wins against Singapore. Harris will want to be pitted against whoever he feels is Japan's most vulnerable player, so the last Oceanic representatives can have a crack at Asia's last hope in another doubles decider.

Scotland and Belgium are bucking the trend, simply by not being bucked themselves. The Scots have cruised past Denmark and Sweden, while Kim Huybrechts' 4-3 win over Martin Schindler proved pivotal to the Belgians knocking Germany out. It means that this is the only quarter-final featuring two seeded nations. They last met in 2016, as second and seventh seeds respectively; Huybrechts and Gary Anderson won their singles games, and the Belgians saw out a doubles win. Could lightning strike twice?

The Republic of Ireland kept a fine run of shocks going, and stole the show in the process. Steve Lennon squeaking past Michael Smith was followed by a quite incredible showing from William O'Connor. Despite being the seeded duo, Austria are up against it here. Mensur Suljovic was magic on Saturday; Zoran Lerchbacher isn't meeting the Gentle's high standards. If O'Connor gets a crack at Lerchbacher, Ireland should be able to take the game to a decider at the very least. This could be a momentous weekend for the men from the Emerald Isle.

The Netherlands have gone about their business, losing just three legs between Friday's doubles and Saturday's two singles wins. Michael van Gerwen and Jermaine Wattimena both produced clutch finishes on the bull to prove that they've got the cool heads to back up often red-hot scoring. They take on the rank outsiders for the tournament, Canada. Dawson Murschell and Jim Long didn't have to do anything special against Australia. They have to step it up if they've got a prayer against the four-time champions. This has 2-0 written all over it - but everyone thought England would make the quarter-finals, and that didn't pan out.

New Zealand v Japan Scotland v Belgium Republic of Ireland v Austria Canada v Netherlands