Historic gold for Indian Women’s Fours team at CWG 2022

It would be safe to say that most Indian sports fans would have been scrambling to look up the rules of lawn bowls after the Indian Womenrsquos Fours team grabbed a historic gold at the 2022 Commonwealth GamesA genteel game often seen as an English pastime has catapulted the foursome of Rupa Rani Tirkey Lovely Choubey Pinki and Nayanmoni Saikia into the limelight after they beat a more fancied South African side 1710 in the final to secure a firstever gold for India in the sportIndiarsquos Lovely Choubey extreme left Pinki an emotional Nayanmoni Saikia and Rupa Rani Tirkey extreme right on the podium with their lawn bowls fours gold PicGetty ImagesA day earlier their entry into the final which assured them at least a silver had the media rushing to Victoria Park a public park in Leamington Spa Warwickshire some 30 miles away from the heart of BirminghamThe Indian women did not disappoint as they duly picked up the goldAlso Read Punjab govt announces Rs 40 Lakh reward to CWG bronze medallist Harjinder KaurDhoniinspired winIt is the story of a team of modest people playing a sport about which little is known in India Lovely Choubey is a constable with Jharkhand Police while Rupa Rani Tirkey who too is from Ranchi works in the state sports department Tirkey also revealed that Mahendra Singh Dhoni the former Indian cricket captain who also lives in Ranchi often comes to the place where they practise and has even tried his hand at the gameNayanmoni Saikia who comes from a farming family in Assam and works in the statersquos forest department started out as a weightlifter but turned to lawn bowling following injuries during liftingLast but not the least is Pinki a sports teacher with DPS RK Puram in New Delhi She picked up the sport when her school was one of the practise venuesIndian began their journey at these Games against hosts England to whom they lost 918 But victories in the other two league matches against Cook Islands 159 and Canada 177 earned them a place in the quarterfinals finishing second to England in their groupIn the quarters India were lucky to draw a relatively weaker opponent in Norfolk Islands who they beat 179 while England went down to South Africa 1112 New Zealand who beat Botswana and Fiji who beat Northern Ireland were the other semifinalistsIndia then vanquished New Zealand 1613 in the semis becoming the new favourites of sorts while South Africa also a strong side beat Fiji 1814Final flourishIn the final the Indian women scored the first point of the competition in the first lsquoendrsquo similar to a round and gradually extended their lead to 82 by the seventh end South Africa fought back to level the scores over the next two ends with a great display and even went ahead 108 India levelled matters in the 12th end after which it was 1010 The Indian women then moved full steam with some great rolls close to the Jack the target ball and won two three and two points over the next three ends to close the match at 1710 Trailing 1015 after 14 ends South Africa were left with a very unrealistic target of five points to tie the matchInstead India won two more points to make it 1710