New Zealand created history at the Professional Darts Corporation World Cup of Darts by beating South Africa to reach the quarter-finals for the first time on Sunday (NZ time).
Cody Harris and Haupai Puha triumphed 2-1 over Devon Petersen and Vernon Bouwers in their second-round match at the Barclaycard Arena in Hamburg, Germany.
New Zealand's previous best finishes in eight previous visits to the World Cup was in 2010 and 2015, when they lost in the second round to Wales and Northern Ireland respectively.
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After both countries split the best-of-seven singles matches, the round-of-16 tie went to a best-of-seven doubles match where New Zealand proved to be too strong against the African nation.
Harris put New Zealand in front after claiming a 4-0 whitewash win over Bouwers. The 33-year-old Aucklander averaged 84.68 in the match, with the highlight being a 72 finish on the bullseye.
South Africa then levelled the match as world number 59 Petersen beat Puha by the same scoreline in a whitewash win.
Petersen averaged almost 102 and took out a brilliant 132 checkout in a high-quality singles match.
That forced the contest into a doubles match, where New Zealand showed their class to come out on top 4-2 and book their ticket into the next round.
New Zealand raced out to a 3-0 lead in the match and missed five match darts for another whitewash win as South Africa battled back to win the next two legs.
South Africa then missed one dart to force the match into a last-leg decider, before Puha took out double 20 to secure victory and create history.
"It feels so good, I'm speechless," Harris, who is competing in his fourth World Cup told Live Darts.
Harris and Puha now face Seigo Asada and Haruki Muramatsu of Japan in the quarter-finals, with the winner to meet Scotland or Belgium in the semi-finals.
"New Zealand has never made it this far, and we're making history, said Puha. "Hopefully everybody back home will be proud of us."
Other nations in the quarter-finals are Canda, Ireland, Australia and the Netherlands.
Reaching the quarter-finals means the Kiwi team are guaranteed to win £16,000 (NZ$30,584) of prize money.
Newshub.
