The India lawn bowls team assured itself of a first-ever Commonwealth Games medal after defeating New Zealand 16-13 in the semi-final of the women’s fours event, here on Monday. This will also be India’s maiden final appearance in the women’s fours format. The women’s fours team, comprising Lovely Choubey (lead), Pinki (second), Nayanmoni Saikia (third) and Rupa Rani Tirkey (skip), will face South Africa in the gold-medal clash on Tuesday.

The ‘leader’ of the pack, 38-year-old Choubey is a constable with Jharkhand Police while Tirkey, who too is from Ranchi, works in the sports department. Pinki, who picked up the sport accidentally during the 2010 CWG in Delhi, is a sports teacher with DPS RK Puram in New Delhi while Saikia comes from a farming family in Assam and works in the state’s forest department. “We cannot express our feelings in mere words. We have fought as a team and now our journey doesn’t end here,” Tirkey said later.

Draw in hockey

The men’s hockey team squandered a three-goal advantage and were held to a 4-4 draw by hosts England in their second Pool B match. The Indians started brilliantly and dominated the first two quarters to enjoy a comfortable 3-0 lead at half-time.

But the Englishmen came out hard in the final two quarters to stun the Indians. Judokas L Shushila Devi and Vijay Kumar Yadav signed off with a silver and a bronze medal in women’s 48kg and men’s 60kg respectively.

Squash player Saurav Ghosal entered the semifinals, but it was curtains for Joshna Chinappa as she suffered a loss to Canada’s Hollie Naughton in the women’s quarter finals. Ghosal defeated Scotland’s Greg Lobbon. Boxers Amit Panghal and Mohammad Hussamudin cruised into the flyweight and featherweight quarter finals respectively. Bengal’s Pranati Nayak finished fifth in women’s vault final of artistic gymnastics.