Australia's Simon Whitlock and Damon Heta were the width of a wire away from a moment of history at the Cazoo World Cup of Darts on Friday night.
The duo narrowly missed out on achieving the first nine-darter in World Cup history during their 5-2 first round win over Lithuania in Frankfurt.
With the scores at one-all, Whitlock opened the third leg with a 180 before Heta matched that in his visit to the oche to leave the Australians needing 141.
Whitlock landed another treble 20 and hit treble 15 to leave 36, only to see his dart at double 18 land narrowly outside of the wire.
Heta returned to complete a ten-dart leg before the Australians went on to close out victory, but Whitlock admitted the nine-darter remains a target this weekend.
"I thought it was in when it left my hand," admitted Whitlock. "It's there still to be hit.
"It would have been lovely to hit the nine-darter but we can try in our next match."
A WIRE FROM HISTORY ??
— PDC Darts (@OfficialPDC) June 17, 2022
The pain.
Simon Whitlock wires D18 for a pairs nine-darter at the World Cup!
Heta hits 36 for a 10-darter and a 2-1 lead... pic.twitter.com/HP9Vr6bdpo
An ever-present for Australia, Whitlock is also aiming to finally claim World Cup glory this weekend, having lost out in the 2012 final
"It would mean the world to me to win this," admitted the former European Championship winner. "If we could finally lift this trophy for Australia it would be amazing.
"I've got a great partner in Damon, he's overtaken me in the rankings and I'm so proud of him. He's brilliant, a great guy and a great dart player.
"He's at the top of his game and my darts are going great."