"It looked like he'd forgotten how to throw completely": Wayne Mardle puzzled by Michael van Gerwen World Matchplay win

Michael Van Gerwen progressed to the second round of the Matchplay last night in Blackpool, defeating long standing rival and friend Raymond Van Barneveld.

The game ended 10-6 with neither players throwing their best. The pair missed 33 doubles combined throughout the course of the game with Van Gerwen missing three at double eight, something Wayne Mardle could not believe.

“I’ve never seen such a loss of composure from Michael” Looking back at the game, Mardle stated to Sky Sports post match in the studio: “It was nervous, it was edgy, it was everything I thought it was going to be."

The game was full of ups and downs for Van Gerwen, he went from being seven darts into a nine darter and ended up losing the leg, busting his score twice.

It was something out of the ordinary for MVG to perform this way. “It looked like he didn’t know how to grip them. In fact, at one point, it looked like he’d forgotten how to throw completely”

“This is not the Michael Van Gerwen we’re used to seeing and I don’t like, we’re used to seeing him being a champion, acting like a champion and playing like a champion.”

There was a stage in the game where it looked like Van Gerwen would struggle to get it over the line, hitting a score of 13, consisting of two low fives and a three. “For 30-40 seconds he’d absolutely gone.”

Raymond Van Barneveld averaged just over 87 last night as Mardle also shared his disappointment surrounding that. “Really disappointing for Raymond, thought he’d play slightly better than that.” The 58-year-old kept up with Van Gerwen at stages, hitting three 180s and ten 140s nearly matching the scoring power of three-time World Champion MVG, but it proved not to be enough to progress.

Looking at the second round match up on Wednesday, Van Gerwen will play be taking on current World Cup Champion Josh Rock who looked on fire last night averaging 104.32 in a ten to five win over World no.14 Ross Smith. The pair last faced off back in April, a game that Van Gerwen come out 7-2 victorious.