Bet on bullish Bunting looks the antidote to Snakebite

Last-16 matches
Sky Sports Mix & Action, 7pm Wednesday

Former Lakeside champion Stephen Bunting said before the Grand Slam started that he was back to somewhere near his best and he has certainly looked impressive over the first few days of competition.

The Bullet topped his group with narrow triumphs over Jeffrey de Zwaan and Scott Mitchell sandwiching a 5-2 drubbing of Dave Chisnall.

That’s got to make him feel good about taking on UK Open champion Peter Wright in Wednesday night’s second round at the Wolverhampton Civic Hall.

After a barren couple of years for Bunting he reached a Players Championship final in Dublin before taking on Snakebite in round one of the Grand Prix. Wright won 2-1 but it was close, the Scot edging the leg count 7-5.

And Bunting is a confidence player who will be bullish going into this showdown over a maximum of 19 legs.

Wright, inevitably, has changed darts on the eve of the finals and needed to pip Alan Norris to make the last 16 having lost to Glen Durrant in his opening game last Saturday. There is every reason to think this could be a really close-fought duel and Bunting is well worth backing to get a minimum of eight legs.

Poor old Berry van Peer kicks off round two, the Dutch youngster a bigger price to win the tournament now than he was before it started. Van Peer’s troubles with dartitis have got into the heads of Simon Whitlock and Cameron Menzies and both crumbled; merciless Mensur Suljovic is unlikely to be as generous and the Austrian ace can put Van Peer out of his misery.

The game of the night looks like being Glen Durrant, the current BDO world champ, against Dave Chisnall, a former BDO finalist.

Durrant is playing seriously well but Chizzy’s scoring power would always give him a chance against anyone and he could well be worth a punt.

Recommendations
S Bunting +2.5 legs
3pts 5-4 BoyleSports
D Chisnall
2pts 5-4 Betfair

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