Darts shock as Edinburgh’s Ryan Murray sets up clash with world No 1 Michael van Gerwen

Edinburgh’s Ryan Murray has set up a Saturday night showdown with world No 1 Michael van Gerwen after the Scot made a winning debut at the PDC World Championship.

Ryan Murray en route to victory over Lourence Ilagan at the William Hill World Darts Championship at Alexandra Palace.

Murray defeated Lourence Ilagan in the first round at Alexandra Palace and will now meet the Dutch great who is a three-time world champion.

After his 3-1 win, the 33-year-old said: “I’m not going to lie, I was a bit nervous. I didn’t play that great but I’ve dug deep and won the game.”

Murray’s day job is as a printer and this was his first experience of set-play darts but he held his nerve to see off Ilagan, a Filipino professional.

Murray has played van Gerwen before and on that occasion the 2019 world champion threw two nine-dart finishes.

“Saturday’s a different day and now that I’ve had that little bit of experience on the stage hopefully I can play a bit better and put a challenge up against Michael,” said Murray.

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