CWG 2022: India’s lawn bowlers ensure 1st medal
Birmingham, August 1
India’s lawn bowls team assured itself a historic Commonwealth Games medal after defeating New Zealand 16-13 in the semifinals of the women’s fours event here today.
This will be India’s maiden final appearance in the women’s fours format of the competition.
The team comprising Lovely Choubey (lead), Pinki (second), Nayanmoni Saikia (third) and Rupa Rani Tirkey (skip) will face South Africa in the gold medal clash tomorrow.
This is as big as Olympics for us since lawn bowls are not part of the Summer Games. We lost the medal by one point four years ago but this time we have made up for that by making history. I hope this effort gives us some recognition. —Lovely Choubey
“We cannot express our feelings in words. We have fought as a team and now our journey doesn’t end here,” an emotional lawn bowler Tirkey said.
“We have to play in a similar fashion against South Africa and do what
hasn’t been done before,” she added.
With New Zealand 5-0 up after the second end, the Indian team made a strong comeback against the Kiwi team of Selina Goddard (lead), Nicole Toomey (second), Tayle Bruce (third) and Val Smith (skip).
After end-nine, they were tied 7-7 and after end-10, India were leading 10-7. But it was a close contest between the two sides as New Zealand were 13-12 ahead after end-14.
A brilliant shot from Tirkey helped India seal the game, with the scores reading 16-13.
However, the Indian men’s pair was knocked out on Sunday after going down 8-26 to Northern Ireland in the quarterfinals.
