Watch: Jose de Sousa hits THREE double tops to finish a 120 checkout in Premier League Darts
De Sousa #DeSousa
Jose de Sousa underlined his status as the Special One of darts with a sensational 120 checkout made up of three double tops during the final night of the Premier League regular season.
The magic moment at a sell-out Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes rivalled any nine-dart finish for crowd reaction and is exactly the kind of entertainment the sport’s fans deserved for the atmosphere they’ve created for the players during the final week of the campaign.
It came in the opening leg of his clash with fellow Play-Off qualifier Nathan Aspinall, who couldn’t hold back a smile of his own when De Sousa landed his third double top that sent the fans wild.
If that wasn’t enough, Aspinall responded with a 152 checkout in the very next leg although De Sousa continued to turn on the style and went on to fire in another tops-tops finish to move 6-3 up in a crazy match that also saw him break the record for most 180s in a single season.
De Sousa needed two maximums to overtake the astonishing tally of 79 that Gary Anderson set in his debut season back in 2011 and he managed it by throwing three of the five 180s in a clash he went on to win 8-3 with an average of 102.34.
De Sousa completed the victory with another show-stopping 149 finish that lifted him up to second in the table and ended Aspinall’s chances of pipping Michael van Gerwen to the league leader’s bonus of £25,000.
Van Gerwen has now topped the table for eight of his nine seasons and will be favourite to win the overall title for the sixth time in his career on Friday night but on this evidence, De Sousa could be his biggest threat.
The opening match of the night saw James Wade and Gary Anderson playing for nothing but pride and place prize money and it was the Machine who ended up prevailing 8-6.
He averaged 99.51 compared to Anderson’s 100.52 but hit four more 180s with seven in a high-quality affair despite the lack of stakes while he also fired in checkouts of 102 and a match-winning 94.
More to follow…
Premier League Darts 2021: Thursday results and remaining schedule
Night 16, May 27Marshall Arena, Milton KeynesTV Channel: Sky Sports (1900 GMT)
Play-Offs Night, May 28Marshall Arena, Milton KeynesTV Channel: Sky Sports (1900 GMT)Semi-Finals (Best of 19 legs)Finals (Best of 21 legs)
2021 Premier League Darts Table
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