AUSTRALIA’s World Cup of Darts skipper Simon Whitlock believes he and team-mate Kyle Anderson were unlucky not to have progressed further in the tournament.
The duo lost out in an incredible quarter-final battle against eventual runners-up the Netherlands – and almost hit a historic nine-darter in the pairs decider.
After defeating host nation Germany and Denmark, Whitlock lost out to world number one Michael van Gerwen in the opening game of their last eight clash.
Anderson, however, defeated Raymond van Barneveld to force the tie in a crucial pairs game, which will go down as one of the best in the tournament’s history.
The sixth leg saw both Whitlock and his partner hit 180s before ‘Wizard’ fired in a seventh treble twenty to close in on the perfect leg – only to see the eighth arrow miss its intended treble 15 target and slip into treble ten.
Australia won the leg but, quite incredibly, the Netherlands pair then kicked off with back-to-back maximums of their own to set up victory in the last-leg decider.
“It was a crazy game,” said Whitlock, who reached the final with Paul Nicholson in 2012. “Australia seem to have a habit of getting into incredible matches in this tournament. Kyle did fantastically on his debut, especially in beating Barney to get us to the pairs.
“We knew that if we could get to the pairs we’d have a good chance and after the nine-darter attempt I thought we had them but credit to Michael and Raymond. They showed their quality when it mattered most. That’s what they do and that’s why they’ve won what they’ve won.
“It was great to be involved in some good matches on TV again and it sets me up nicely for the rest of the year.”
The tournament was eventually won by England.