Indian team wins silver in men’s fours lawn bowls

BIRMINGHAM: India won its second medal in lawn bowls competition at the Commonwealth Games as the men’s fours team settled for a silver medal after losing to Northern Ireland in the final here on Saturday.

The final score read 18-5 in favour of Northern Ireland. The Indian team comprised Sunil Bahadur (lead), Navneet Singh (second), Chandan Kumar Singh (third) and Dinesh Kumar (skip).

Northern Ireland’s last gold medal in lawn bowls came way back in the 1998 Commonwealth Games. Cam Barkley (lead), Adam McKeown (second), Ian McClure (third) and Martin McHugh (skip) formed the Northern Ireland team that looked favourite to win the top prize from the onset.

On the other hand, India struggled and failed to open its account in the first four ends, even as its opponent led 7-0.

India finally earned its first point after five ends, but that hardly mattered to the aggressive Northern Ireland quartet, as it extended its domination and stretched the lead to seven points after 10 ends. The scoreline read 12-5 at that stage of the final. Continuing in the same vein, Northern Ireland won six more points in the next four ends to emerge easy winner and claim the gold medal.

The Indian team defeated host England by a close 13-12 margin in the semifinal to assure the country of at least a silver medal.

This comes after the women’s quartet of Lovely Choubey (lead), Pinki (second), Nayanmoni Saikia (third) and Rupa Rani Tirkey (skip) beat South Africa 17-10 in the women’s fours final to hand India a historic gold on Tuesday.