Bunting mounts comeback to edge out White in tie-break thriller

Bunting was 9-4 down and on the verge of defeat; but powered back to force a tense conclusion, this got to White who missed five match darts and was edged out by the Bullet.

To start the tie, Bunting played well edging into a 3-2 lead at the interval; with 60 percent on the doubles. White levelled it up at three a piece; with a brilliant 100 checkout and he regained the upperhand at 4-3.

From there he made it three legs in a row cleaning up 82 to make it 5-3 upping his average to 99 in the process. As a result at the second interval, 'Diamond' was 6-4 up but Bunting closed the gap to two.

White regained a three leg cushion with an 80 checkout to move 7-4 ahead. He established further daylight at 8-4 up with a break of throw and made it three more legs on the spin at 9-4 up.

Bunting stopped the rot and went on a mini run himself claiming three in a row to ask the question of the Stoke-on-Trent ace. He broke the throw again to go 9-8 behind punishing a struggling White, was Bunting going to make a brilliant comeback or would White edge over the line?

White finally stopped the rot after Bunting missed three darts at double, as a result he was one away from victory. He missed three match darts and as a result Bunting broke throw.

He missed five more darts and Bunting forced a tie-break. Despite his double woes, he nudged 11-10 in the tie break. It kept going with White recovering to send it to 12-12 and break throw again, will it go to sudden death?

White went into the wrong bed twice and Bunting punished to go to the break then finished the job to conclude a marathon battle.

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Second Round
Daryl Gurney (93.44) 11-9 (92.44) Keegan Brown
Stephen Bunting (92.82) 14-12 (94.63) Ian White
21:10 Rob Cross v Krzysztof Ratajski
22:10 Peter Wright v Simon Whitlock

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