Sunday 11 November 2018 18:59, UK
Rob Cross beat Dimitri Van den Bergh to book his place in the knockout stage of the Grand Slam of Darts on a high-quality afternoon at Wolverhampton.
Group H's Sunday afternoon action pitched the current world champion up against the current world youth champion in Cross against Van den Bergh - a repeat of their breathtaking quarter-final at Alexandra Palace.
Cross prevailed on that occasion and in a topsy-turvy, high-quality battle that featured four 180s, a further 17 140s and a pair of three-figure finishes.
Fittingly it went all the way to a last leg shoot-out where Van den Bergh missed a dart at bullseye for the match and Cross nipped in to win and take his place in the last 16 with a game to spare.
Van den Bergh will next face Mark McGeeney in a winner-takes-all contest on Monday night after beating Ryan Searle in the opening match of the afternoon.
McGeeney, who fired a timely 108 on his way to victory, recovered from 3-1 down to beat Searle and record his first win at the fifth time of asking at the event.
With Sunday's matches featuring the winners from Saturday's opening session going head to head as well as the losers there was plenty at stake but Cross is the only man assured of his place from the bottom half of the draw, meaning there is still plenty to play for.
In Group F, Gerwyn Price edged out back-to-back BDO world champion Glen Durrant in a last leg decider to continue his recent impressive form.
The Welshman roared his way into a 2-0 lead and then fired six perfect darts in the third leg of the match only to see Durrant pinch the leg and get on the board.
Price powered on to take a 3-1 lead with an average in excess of 100 but inspired by a brilliant 118 Durrant, took out three successive legs for a 4-3 lead.
But Price has been in impressive form and having levelled at 4-4, took advantage of Durrant's only dip in the match to record a win that puts him on the brink of a place in the second round.
Duzza moves on to a meeting with Andrew Gilding who was beaten by Simon Whitlock who took out the convincing victory he needed after a heavy defeat to Durrant on day one.
With little between the pair over the first four legs, it took a brilliant 116 from The Wizard to forge the first two-leg lead of the match at the optimum moment and he pinned double 10 to complete a first win of the week.
Grand Slam of Darts - Day Two as it happened
Last year's runner-up Peter Wright won the last three legs of his contest with Max Hopp to record a second successive victory and stand on the brink of a return to the knockout stages.
Having beaten Jim Williams on Saturday, Snakebite moved onto four points with a 5-2 win over the German youngster, powering home after the pair shared the opening couple of legs that featured a brilliant 121 from Hopp.
In the other game in the group Josh Payne kept his hopes alive by beating Williams who now needs an unlikely turn of events to advance
Payne is in the hunt after some impressive finishing saw him into a 3-2 lead despite four 180s from his opponent. With their Grand Slam hopes on the line, nerves started to take hold until it was Payne who held his nerve to take the victory.
In Group G, Stephen Bunting produced a superb display to beat Mensur Suljovic and record a second successive victory of the competition.
A 5-3 win over Suljovic means The Bullet is on the brink of a place in the knockout stages ahead of his final group against good friend Scott Mitchell who beat Martin Schindler.
Bunting has endured a disappointing couple of years but has found decent form on the PDC circuit and having come through qualifying last Monday he backed up his win over Schindler, whose chances are hanging by a thread.
Mitchell, like Bunting a former BDO world champion, has surprisingly never got out of the group stage in three previous visitors to the Grand Slam but a 5-1 hammering of Germany's Schindler leaves him in with a chance this year.
Groups A-D will reach their conclusion on Monday night with Groups E-H finishing on Tuesday before the knockout stages get underway with Wednesday and Thursday's second round when the matches are the first to 10 legs.
The Grand Slam of Darts continues on Sky Sports across the week with coverage of Sunday's evening session on Sky Sports Main Event from 7pm and Monday on Sky Sports Action, also from 7pm
Keep up to date with the news as the tungsten enters its busiest time of year with the PDC World Championships just around the corner get all the latest at www.skysports.com/darts and join in the conversation @SkySportsDarts.
