Historic moment at CWG: India seals its first-ever medal in Lawn Bowls
Even as the weightlifters hogged the limelight on the first three days of competition, the unfancied women’s Lawn Bowling team came out of nowhere to get into the final of the Women’s Fours, springing a huge surprise.
They are now assured of a silver, which will be the first-ever medal for India in Lawn Bowls.
The Indian quartet comprises Lovely Choubey, who made her CWG debut in 2014 and was part of the team that was fifth in 2018. The 42-year-old is employed with Jharkhand Police. Her teammates are Nayanmoni Saikia, who started her sporting career as a weightlifter. She works with the Assam Forest Department and has competed at the CWG before. Pinki, another experienced player from 2014 and 2018 CWG, is a physical education teacher at the Delhi Public School in Delhi.
Ranchi’s Rupa Rani, the most experienced player, has been competing at CWG since 2010 in Delhi, where she was fourth. She is the ‘skip’ of the team, who is like a director for the team and decides strategy. It was not the best of starts for the Indian squad which lost their opening match in Section D. They went down 9-18, but then did well to beat Cook Islands 19-7 to ensure one win against one loss on the first day.
Also Read: CWG 2022: Weightlifter Achinta Sheuli breaks records, bags India’s third gold
The next day, India scored a 17-7 win over Canada and finished second in the Section to move to the next stage, which had eight teams, two each from the four Sections.
India were lucky to Norfolks Island in the quarters, and won 17-8, while England facing South Africa lost narrowly 11-12.
The other quarters saw Fiji beat Northern Ireland 15-12 and New Zealand beat Botswana 17-13.
India trailed for the first half of the match till the seventh end and then the match went neck and neck. After being 10-10 after 11 ends, the team were 12-12 after 13 ends. After 14 ends it was 13-12, but the Indians scored four points the highest in the match in a single end, to move from 12 to 16 while the Kiwis were stranded at 13.
The Indians will now meet South Africa in the final on Tuesday.
The men’s four also reached the knockout stage but lost in the quarter-finals.
What and how Lawn Bowls is played
One of the original disciplines at the Commonwealth Games, Lawn Bowls has been around at the Games since the first edition in 1930. It has been featured in every edition, barring 1966.
A Lawn Bowls ball weighs around 1.5 kgs and is called a biased ball because it is heavier on one side which is what allows a player to curl it.
The objective in a game is to roll a biased ball towards the jack. The game is played in four formats- singles, pairs, triples, and fours. Only two teams can compete in a single Lawn Bowls game.
The game kicks off with a team rolling the Jack (a white ball) to the opposite end. The Jack must travel at least 23 meters for the game to proceed. The point where the Jack settles becomes the target for the players. Teams then roll balls towards the target in turns.
The number of attempts per team from each end depends on the format. A team gets two throws per player. The scores are calculated after each team completes the allocated number of throws. This marks the completion of that particular end or round.
Then the game moves on to the next end. The Points System Scoring in Lawn Bowls is simple. The team which manages to put more balls closer to the target wins the point for that end. The number of points awarded is determined by the number of bowls a team has managed to place closer than its opponent. For example: If team A manages to put two balls closer to the target than team B’s closest ball, they get two points for that end. Had it been three balls closer to the target for team A than team B’s closest ball, they would win three points for that end.
In the singles format, a team is declared the winner if it reaches 21 points before its rival. Meanwhile, in other formats, the team with more points after the specified number of ends of throws will take the contest.