Cricket and Darts

So now the first round is almost out the way, very little has changed in the snooker, although Ronnie is yet to be certain of getting through and the Chinese challenge gets stronger by the year. But today is eyes back on the IPL and of course everyone's favourite, the darts! It really is the business end now with 2 weeks to go, and 6 players competing for the final two remaining spots in the playoffs.

3.30 Rajasthan to beat Deccan 17/10 (WON +11.48 - what a game! Deccan's batting finally fires with Symonds hitting 117, but then hero became villain as Shane Warne hit him for back to back sixes off the last two balls of the game to knock off 214)
Deccan have started awfully, bowled out twice for a combined total of 252. Rajasthan also failed to fire in the first game but Shane Warne led by example with 3-19 and with two of his local players chipping in 3 wickets too, they kept Punjab down to 168, which Shane Watson's 76 and Indian U19 batsman Ravi Jadeja's 36 helped see off with 2 overs to spare. The locals could be the key to winning this tournament, supporting the stars, and that is why I fancy Warney's Royals to make it 2 from 3 today and leave Deccan up against it, especially at Sportingbet's 17/10 against everybody else's 6/4.

7.40 Manley +1.5 legs to bt Lewis Evns (WON +12.48 - Another draw for Manley and all he has to do now is do the double over Taylor next week!)
Ady Lewis has his place in the semi-finals in his own hands. He has his two main rivals Wayne Mardle and Peter Manley to play, and they both have Phil Taylor as their other remaining match. Two wins would do it for jackpot you would have to fancy. But he could stumble at the first hurdle tonight. Manley showed his fight to the death attitude that has kept him in contention much further than people expected him too, going down narrowly to James Wade last week, while Lewis was put in his place by Barney. Lewis missed too many doubles and One Dart won't allow him to get away with that. It was 7-7 last time and you wouldn't count that out again, so back Manley and keep the draw on your side with Ladbrokes even money for Manley with a 1.5 leg start.

8.30 Taylor -4 legs to bt Mardle 11/8 (WON +13.86 - It looked for a long time like a double whitewash was on the cards, until Mardle won the 7th leg. Normal service resumed though and it finished 8-1)
The Power just keeps taking his game to a new level. A new 3-dart average record last week, and John Part beat anybody else's 3-dart average by a good margin but still went down 8-3. Mardle played scrappy darts with Terry Jenkins and got a point though that nosed him into 4th place. However, the Power whitewashed Mardle last time out and I don't see Hawaii getting a sniff this time either. I'll be revisiting Skybet again this week and taking their Taylor -4 at 11/8 as several bookies have -4.5 at 10/11.