MICHAEL VAN GERWEN produced a brilliant reaction after spotting Luke Littler revving up the crowd last night.
The two men collided in the Premier League semis as darts fans from Leeds gathered at the First Direct Arena.
Van Gerwen hammered Littler 6-1 in a one-sided battle, with the Dutchman having already defeated Gerwyn Price in the semis.
Littler came into the match after a 6-1 win over Peter Wright.
But he was unable to bring his A-game, having already qualified for the finals at the London O2 Arena.
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Despite the result, both men simultaneously endured a disastrous leg where neither was able to check out.
Van Gerwen initially had the advantage as he fluffed his lines at the double.
This allowed Littler a chance to steal the leg, but he too was unable to finish.
Both men continued to struggle until each was left with a checkout of 2.
Needing to hit Double 1, Van Gerwen stunned the crowd as he fired blanks with all three of his darts.
This allowed Littler to have a crack, with the teenager laughing at MVG’s shock miss.
Before throwing his darts, he turned around to the crowd and pumped his fist in the air several times to get the atmosphere going.
But Van Gerwen caught Littler’s actions out of the corner of his eye.
And the Dutchman did not appear to be impressed as he reacted with a nonchalant shrug.
Amazingly, Littler then failed to check out too, opening the door for Van Gerwen to finally put the leg to bed.
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He went on to storm to victory, setting up a final against world champion Luke Humphries.
But MVG was unable to go all the way as he was narrowly defeated 6-5.
The result means Van Gerwen is in third place in the Premier League darts table, six points off Humphries and 11 off Littler.
He is just two points ahead of Nathan Aspinall, but will be nervously looking at fifth-place Michael Smith who is only three points behind.
The top four qualify for the final, with bottom three Rob Cross, Gerwyn Price and Peter Wright all needing miracles in the remaining fixtures to stand a chance of going through.
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