Luke Littler crushes Michael van Gerwen to reach Premier League darts final after dispatching world champ Humphries
LUKE LITTLER beat Luke Humphries in a thrilling deciding leg before booking his spot in the final by demolishing Micheal van Gerwen.
Night nine of the Premier League in Belfast got off to a stunning start with a repeat of the World Championship final.
Humphries came into the evening, having won three consecutive nights in a row.
No thrower had ever won four in a row and the record remains in tact after Littler’s heroics.
The Warrington wonderkid raced into an early lead in the quarter-final, breaking Humphries in the second leg to go 2-0 up.
But the current world champion showed his composure and made the most of a mistake from the teenage sensation to break back.
There was nothing to split the two players up until 4-4, then Humphries engineered a break opportunity but missed the bullseye.
Littler stepped up to the oche and sealed the leg on the double five.
The 17-year-old missed a match dart at 5-4 and thought his chance had gone as Cool Hand forced a decider at 5-5.
But throwing first in the all-important leg, Littler sealed the win and celebrated wildly.
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He punched the air and let out a roar before hugging his rival.
Littler appeared on JaackMaate’s Happy Hour podcast and agreed to do a “finger wag” celebration in reference to his recent feud with Ricardo Pietreczko.
However, the sheer joy of winning got the better of him as he seemingly forgot to unleash the taunt.
Humphries averaged a strong 99.83 across the match – but Littler showed his talent once again recording a 102.02 average.
He also threw seven 180s compared to the 29-year-old’s two.
Littler moved into the semi-final and faced Van Gerwen, who had beaten Micheal Smith in the last eight.
The young Brit picked up from where he left off and broke his rival to make it 4-2.
MVG was left rattled and ended up giving a little nod to the crowd after audible gasps when he nearly missed three darts to check out.
But by that point, Littler was already in control and powered away to book his spot in the final with a 6-3 victory.
He hit a 99.05 average and hit over 100 on 13 occasions.
Littler faces Nathan Aspinall in the final.