Sunday 5 June 2016 11:43, UK
Top seeds and defending champions England coasted through to the last eight of the World Cup of Darts with a comfortable 2-0 victory over minnows China.
Phil Taylor and Adrian Lewis, neither of whom were anywhere near their best, still had too much for their opponents who failed to bag a single leg between them.
The 16-time world champion Taylor made a slow start to his match against Yuanjun Liu who missed three attempts to take the opening leg having made it down to 40.
And The Power punished his young opponent, needing just two darts to take a 1-0 lead from 94 (3 x 18, 2 x 20).
A lacklustre Taylor, whose three-dart average during the contest was a mediocre 81.24, remained ahead of his opponent to move into a three-leg lead, before sealing a comfortable 4-0 victory with his third throw at a double.
Adrian Lewis also won 4-0 against an exuberant Wenge Xie to book England a quarter-final spot against Austria.
All the home nations were on the oche on Saturday in Frankfurt, where reigning world champion Gary Anderson rode his luck overcoming Cor Dekker in seven tense legs.
Anderson's opponent had one attempt to wrap the match up 4-2 - and give Norway a surprise 1-0 lead in the best-of-three contest against Scotland - but his throw at a double-20 drifted above the wire.
However, Dekker still looked in good shape to take the decider when he left himself 52, with Anderson struggling on 160.
But the Flying Scotsman responded with a brace of maximums and a double-top to give his team the lead.
And the No 2 seeds booked their spot in the quarter-finals as Robert Thornton came from behind to beat Robert Wagner 4-1.
In the match between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, the No 4 seeds from the north made it through 2-0 with Brendan Dolan and Daryl Gurney proving too strong for William O'Connor and Mick McGowan.
But there was a shock for the No 5 seeds Wales, as Mark Webster and Gerwyn Price slumped to a 2-1 defeat against Canada.
The tie included a 4-2 victory for former world champion John Part over Webster.
In the final tie of the night, former champions the Netherlands beat Philippines 2-0.
Michael van Gerwen opened with a 4-2 triumph over Gilbert Ulang, while Raymond van Barneveld completed the task for the No 3 seeds against Alex Tagarao who opened with a maximum and claimed the first leg.
However, despite missing a double-16 to clinch the match in the fifth leg, he secured a 4-2 win while Tagarao was stranded on 160. Van Barneveld produced a three-dart average of more than 100, as the Dutch set up a mouth-watering clash against Australia.
Second Round Results (on Saturday)
Belgium 2-0 Hungary
Northern Ireland 2-0 Republic of Ireland
Wales 1-2 Canada
Austria 2-0 Singapore
Scotland 2-0 Norway
Australia 2-1 Denmark
England 2-0 China
Netherlands 2-0 Philippines
Quarter-Final Ties (Sunday)
England v Austria
Scotland v Belgium
The Netherlands v Australia
Northern Ireland v Canada
The semi-finals and final will also be played on Sunday.
