The
World Cup of Darts has begun with Lithuania and Portugal through to the second round in Austria with victories over Gibraltar and Hungary respectively.
The former duo started proceedings with
Darius Labanauskas and Mindaugas Barauskas seeing off Craig Galliano and Justin Hewitt who impressed on their debuts in the tournament but fell in a 5-3 defeat.
It was a close start with the opening legs shared before
Labanauskas hit a 180 and a 96 finish to go 2-1 up but Barauskas fluffed his
lines on a 48 finish and Hewitt cleaned up to make it 2-2.
But Labanauskas attempted to put in a captain’s display for
Lithuania with a 95 finish keeping their lead. A brilliant 70 finish saw
Galliano continue to level it in a crucial impasse in the match.
But Lithuania came through in the
end breaking throw to win 5-3 despite Labanauskas missing a big number for a
shot at 101. Barauskas pinned double four to
edge through after an entertaining and tense opener.
While for Portugal who came in due to a withdrawal for Singapore claimed an impressive 5-0 whitewash win with the duo of
Jose de Sousa and Jose Marques acquitting themselves well to claim either a tie against USA or Austria next.
De Sousa anchored the Portuguese
duo to the lead with an 80 checkout to begin the tie. He continued to show his
class with a double eight checkout to claim a break of throw and go 2-0 up.
An 81 checkout was left and De
Sousa went for the bull but missed it instead of setting it up but Marques
continued their run with a 33 checkout to make it 3-0.
He hit a 140 and De Sousa
brilliantly hit a double 18 in an 81 combo shot to leave 40 with Marques
pinning double 10 to go one away. Marques hit 137 to leave 40 which De
Sousa pinned to conclude a brilliant whitewash win.
World Cup of Darts 2020 schedule
Friday 6 November
Afternoon session (12:00 GMT)
Lithuania (87.23) 5-3 (77.17) Gibraltar
Portugal (85.4) 5-0 (73.32) Hungary
New Zealand (86.22) 5-2 (72.85) Denmark
Northern Ireland (87.78) 2-5 (94.51) Canada
Belgium v Czech Republic
Austria v USA
England v Philippines
Italy v Spain