Top seeds England survive Latvia scare with pairs decider win

Saturday, 18 June 2022 at 21:26

Top seeds, England will know they need to improve tomorrow in the Quarter-Finals of the World Cup of Darts after being taken all the way to a pairs decider by surprise package, Latvia.

Michael Smith did the captain's role to begin the tie whitewashing Nauris Gleglu 4-0 with a 100.2 average to send them halfway to victory.

Only James Wade now had to see off Madars Razma in the second tie but the captain shone as the Latvian sent it all the way with a 4-3 victory over 'The Machine'.

The match went with throw and Wade mopped up the errors as usual from Razma as he went 3-2 up and one away from the victory.

But Razma started to catch light and went down to his usual route of treble 19's and it worked out as he nearly hit six on the spin and sent it to a decider on double 16 from there.

There was no fist bump from Wade as he looked business like but Razma again went back to the treble 19's and left 53 to seal the win with Wade only leaving 150.

Razma missed match darts but returned with Wade only whittling it down to 40. The former split and pinned double four to send it to the pairs.

Like the match prior, it was Razma doing the hard work but Gleglu finished it off on double 10 to make it 1-1. Again it was England who broke back at 2-1 up.

A 180 and double 20 saw Smith finally seal a hold at 3-1 as they went one away. Gleglu produced a 104 checkout on double 20 to hold throw and make it 3-2.

But this proved a consolation as Smith hit double 20 to seal the pairs win 4-2.

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🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 ENGLAND 2⃣-1⃣ LATVIA 🇱🇻 Michael Smith and James Wade survive a scare in Frankfurt! Madars Razma and Nauris Gleglu pushed them all the way, but the top seeds run out 4-2 winners in a Doubles decider! #CazooWC