Scott Williams has blamed nerves after nearly making a criminal error during his World Darts Championship victory over Rob Cross. The 34-year-old earned a surprise 3-1 win over the former world champion, who became the latest big name to crash out.

Williams came from a set down to win but nearly threw it all away in spectacular fashion with a mistake in the final leg. He needed to check out 80 to claim the fourth set, with one dart at T20 able to give him two match darts at D10.

In an unconventional approach, he appeared to go for two darts at D20 but missed the board twice, leaving himself red-faced and sparking criticism from the Sky Sports commentators.

John Part said: “He’s totally undone himself. It was completely foolish, he should’ve got one dart at least, he should’ve went for the treble.”

Main commentator Dan Dawson added: “He went tops-tops, he threw two out of the board with the match there to be won! Ridiculous behaviour.”

Quizzed on what happened in his press conference afterwards, Williams explained that he was actually going for T20 but got his bearings wrong due to nerves.

“I’ll absolutely say it right now, I was nervous and my hand slipped,” he said. “I was going for T20 and I threw it far too hard. That was not an attempt at tops-tops, it was an attempt at T20. I just got so excited and nervous at the same time.

“But there were two darts in hand, so with one dart there I’ve got to continue. It was giving me a little bit of a guide so I went from there. I will say point blank, it was not at tops-tops, it was at T20 and I just had a really bad dart.

“I’m actually not bad at this game, as new-ish and inexperienced as I am. I can hit the doubles and trebles. My practice game wasn’t great today. Whether it’s because I was thinking about the game too much, I don’t know.

“I was practicing with Daryl [Gurney] beforehand so I’m really happy Daryl won. I’m just happy that I got over the line and managed to come from a set down to win.”

Williams will face Ricardo Pietreczko in round three of the World Darts Championship, a game he will be confident of winning as he looks to maintain his impressive run at Alexandra Palace.