Schedule Thursday night session 2021 World Cup of Darts featuring Wales, Scotland, Netherlands and Australia

The World Cup of Darts is set to begin on Thursday night with many of the leading names in action on the opening night in Jena including defending champions Wales.

Formed of course of Gerwyn Price and Jonny Clayton, both achieved success in further bigger tournaments after winning this title together so will hope for the same effect this time.

They will play second last this evening against Finnish duo of Marko Kantele and Veijo Viinikka.

This forms part of a bumper end to the session in Germany with before that, Scotland who again are without Gary Anderson welcoming back Peter Wright as well as John Henderson who returns for a second straight year. They will face Jianfeng Lu and Wenqing Liu of China.

Read also

Prize money breakdown for 2021 World Cup of Darts with £350.000 on offer

Netherlands will face Denmark with Michael van Gerwen and Dirk van Duijvenbode set to team up for the first time.

A team that has chopped and changed since Raymond van Barneveld's first retirement and has seen Jermaine Wattimena and Danny Noppert step in to partner the Green Machine will now have the rising Aubergenius involved.

They take on a team which doesn't include Per Laursen for the first time and features Andreas Toft Jorgensen and Niels Heinsøe.

To finish the night, it is Australia's pairing of Damon Heta and Simon Whitlock who face the Italian pairing of Danilo Vigato and Michele Turetta.

A duo that gelled well last year, they will be up for the task further with the passing of their friend and in Whitlock's case former World Cup teammate, Kyle Anderson. Heta described it as having a third member with them and they will hope to take the first step in Jena.

Other teams in action include popular Singapore duo, Paul Lim and Harith Lim who return after their absence last year to face Gibraltar's Sean Negrette and Justin Hewitt.

USA will be without Darin Young and will see Danny Lauby team up with Chuck Puleo after Danny Baggish's withdrawal due to Covid restrictions. They face Sweden.

Czech Republic's Adam Gawlas fresh off European Tour success will team with Karel Sedlacek again to face Poland's Krzysztof Ratajski and Krzysztof Kciuk and opening the night, it will be Lithuania's Darius Labanauskas and Mindaugas Barauskas facing Hungary's János Végső & Patrik Kovács.

Read also

Full Sky Sports TV Guide for 2021 World Cup of Darts

2021 World Cup of Darts

Schedule of Play

Thursday September 9

Evening Session (1900 local time, 1800 BST)

8x First Round

Hungary v Lithuania

Czech Republic v Poland

Gibraltar v Singapore

USA v Sweden

Scotland v China

Netherlands v Denmark

Wales v Finland

Australia v Italy