Bunting to face Kumar after historic Indian win

World number four Stephen Bunting survived a huge scare to set up a second round tie with Nitin Kumar after the Indian’s historic victory at the PDC World Championship.

Fan favourite Bunting required a final set tie-break to to overcome Poland’s Sebastian Bialecki 3-2.

“I’m lucky to get away with that. I need to regroup and get back on the practice board,” Englishman Bunting told Sky Sports.

“That’s the nervous one out of the way, I’ll be better in the next round.”

Bunting averaged 119 in the first set and soon went two ahead but the Pole fought levelled before ‘The Bullet’ rallied to win the decider 4-2 and finish the match with a 96 average and nine 180s.

Earlier, Kumar made history as the first Indian player to win a match on the famous Alexandra Palace stage with a sensational victory over Dutchman Richard Veenstra.

The 40-year-old had lost in all four of his previous first-round encounters, but his 3-2 win puts him in the last 64 of the competition.

Kumar’s scoring was inferior to Veenstra’s, but his finishing proved crucial, boasting a 75% checkout success and hitting all his last seven doubles.

“I don’t know what to say right now. I’m overwhelmed, I’m happy,” said Kumar, who is nicknamed ‘The Royal Bengal’.

“If you dream it, anything is possible. I’ve dreamed of this ever since I saw Dennis Priestley win the World Championship (in 1994).”

Asked about what his victory could do for darts in India, he said: “I’ve opened the floodgates to a billion of them.

“I’m sorry, 10 years down the line if you have eight people in the World Championship walking on to Bollywood music, don’t blame me.”

Veenstra hit five 100-plus finishes, with his highest coming at 144. Kumar was not as flamboyant with his scoring, but proved to be incredibly consistent as the crowd roared him on.

Three-time BDO world champion Glen Durrant said on Sky Sports: “It was one of the greatest games I have ever commentated on.

“It’s not just the quality of the match, it’s the impact for Nitin Kumar and what it does for Indian darts.”

Two seeds exited the competition on Sunday – world number 23 Dimitri van den Bergh and 27th-ranked Ritchie Edhouse.

Belgium’s Van den Bergh was out of sorts from the first dart and was comfortably beaten 3-0 by Scottish debutant Darren Beveridge.

In the afternoon session, Edhouse was knocked out by Jonny Tata, who was also making his first appearance.

Former European champion Edhouse was stunned 3-0 by the New Zealander, to taste defeat at this stage for the fourth time in a row.

But the same fate did not follow fellow seed Joe Cullen after he eased past Bradley Brooks with a 3-0 win.

The world number 32 was in fine form to produce his second-highest average on the world stage with 99.33.

Another debutant, Englishman Dom Taylor, progressed to the second round with a 3-0 win over Sweden’s Oskar Lukasiak.

Meanwhile, the evening session saw the Netherlands’ Lukas Wenig beat Wesley Plaiser 3-1 while England’s James Hurrell beat Stowe Buntz by the same scoreline.

Afternoon session

Ritchie Edhouse (27) 0-3 Jonny Tata

Dom Taylor 3-0 Oskar Lukasiak

Richard Veenstra 2-3 Nitin Kumar

Joe Cullen (32) 3-0 Bradley Brooks

Evening session

Lukas Wenig 3-1 Wesley Plaisier

Dimitri van den Bergh (23) 0-3 Darren Beveridge

Stephen Bunting (4) 3-2 Sebastian Bialecki

James Hurrell 3-1 Stowe Buntz

Afternoon session (from 12:30 GMT)

Brendan Dolan v Tavis Dudeney

Cameron Menzies (26) v Charlie Manby

Mensur Suljovic v David Cameron

Peter Wright (30) v Noa-Lynn van Leuven

Evening session (from 19:00 GMT)

Martin Lukeman v Max Hopp

Dirk van Duijvenbode (29) v Andy Baetens

Jonny Clayton (5) v Adam Lipscombe

Connor Scutt v Simon Whitlock