India secure first-ever medal in lawn bowls in Commonwealth Games history

New Delhi, India

The Indian women's fours lawn bowls team created history at the ongoing Commonwealth Games 2022 on Monday (August 01) as they secured the country's first-ever medal in the sport at the Games. India had never won a medal in Lawn Bowls despite it being one of the oldest games in the history of the Commonwealth Games. The sport has traditionally been dominated by England and Scotland.

However, India have now booked their first medal in lawn bowls after defeating New Zealand in the semi-final of the women's fours event at the Leamington Spa in Birmingham on Monday. India got the better of New Zealand 13-16 in the semi-final to enter the final where they will face South Africa in the gold medal match.

The Indian women's fours team of Lovely Choubey, Nayanmoni Saikia, Pinki Singh and Rupa Rani Tirkey produced a brilliant effort in the semis against New Zealand to enter the final. India were trailing 1-6 at the completion of the 4th end in the semi-final but ended up bouncing back to win 16-13 at the end of the 15 ends.

Also Read: CWG'22: Lalrinnunga opines on special gift received from Samoa's Vaipava loane

What is lawn bowls?

Despite being one of the oldest sport at the Commonwealth Games, lawn bowls has failed to garner popularity over the years due to its simple yet complex style of play. The game is played on a green lawn as the name suggests and involves bowls and jacks.

While bowls are almost round-shaped objects with flattened sides and weight bias on one side to help them generate some swing. In the game, the bowls are rolled or bowled towards the jack and the objective is to land the bowl as close to the jack as possible.

Also Read: CWG 2022 - Horrific crash takes place in cycling event, England's Matt Walls taken to hospital - watch

It is one of those games which can be played by people across age groups and doesn't involve massive physical intensity as compared to several other sports at the Games. The objective is to land the bowl closer to the jack than your opponents and secure points.

The player or the team with a bowl or bowls closest to the jack are awarded the point at the end of each round or 'end'. In the singles format, the player who reaches 21 points first is declared the winner while in other formats, the team which has the most number of points after 18 rounds is the winner.