“I'm not going to speak out because then he'll be fired up, and I don't want him to be fired up” – Mike De Decker wants to keep Luke Littler in check ahead of clash

Mike De Decker booked his place in the second round of the Poland Darts Open in Krakow on Friday evening, though it was far from convincing. With a modest 84 average, the Belgian was a 6-4 winner over Euro Tour debutant Marvin Kraft.

The match started sluggishly. De Decker needed 20 darts to hold his opening leg, but immediately set the tone with a strong 12-darter to break the German. He could not capitalise for long, though. Kraft hit straight back with a 78 checkout and broke back at once for 2-1.

De Decker recovered quickly and struck again on his opponent’s throw. This time he did hold his own leg, stretching the lead to 4-1 and seemingly taking control.

Kraft, however, kept hanging in. A tidy 14-darter cut the deficit to 4-2, but De Decker then reached match point in 20 darts and looked on course for a relatively comfortable win. It didn’t play out that way. The German battled back with two consecutive legs to trail 5-4 and kept the tension alive.

De Decker allowed no further twist. A 16-darter ended Kraft’s resistance and sealed his spot in round two. His level will need to rise in the next round, as a meeting with two-time world champion Luke Littler awaits.

Even so, the Mechelen thrower will take heart from having pushed Littler recently. At the Winmau World Masters, De Decker even missed a match dart at double 11 to knock Littler out of the tournament.

“I’m never gonna put myself on double 11 again,” De Decker joked to Tungsten Tales. “No, it was a good game. If you get a match dart against the world number one and the player whose been dominating the sport for the past two years, you're doing a good job,” De Decker reflected.

"Hopefully I do that again, but we'll worry about that tomorrow (Saturday),” continued the former World Grand Prix champion. “I'm not going to speak out because then he'll be fired up, and I don't want him to be fired up. We’ll see.”