Glasgow, Jul 26 (PTI): India endured a disappointing day at the Commonwealth Games lawn bowls as the women’s pairs team was knocked out after England won a tense tie-break, while Putul Sonowal’s hopes of reaching the men’s singles semifinals also came to an end, here on Sunday.
Pinki Singh and Rupa Rani Tirkey’s women’s pairs campaign ended in heartbreak after they lost to England in a dramatic tie-break in their final Group B sectional match.
After the two sides shared the opening two sets, England held their nerve in the decisive single-end tie-break to seal a 1-1 (3-4, 10-3) victory and eliminate India from semifinal contention.
Sonowal on the other hand suffered a 0.5-1.5 defeat to Malta’s Shaun James Parnis in his penultimate Group D match on Sunday.
Sonowal, currently third in the table, will conclude his campaign against bottom-placed Kenya’s Anwar Hamada in his final sectional match on Monday.
Having lost to Namibia earlier in the day, India’s Rupa Rani and Pinki made a stronger start, edging a closely fought opening set 4-3 against their English rivals Amy Pharaoh and Sian Honnor.
The Indian duo built an early 4-0 advantage after the first three ends before England fought back with three points across the final two ends. India, however, held on to take the first set.
England responded emphatically in the second set.
After the opening two ends were tied at 3-3, Amy and Sian dominated the closing stages, collecting four points in the third end before extending their advantage to complete a commanding 10-3 set win and force a tie-break.
The winner-takes-all tie-break produced a dramatic finish.
England piled on the pressure early as Amy delivered three excellent bowls around the jack. Pinki answered with a superb delivery that struck the jack and moved it away from England’s cluster, keeping India’s hopes alive.
The decisive moment came with the final bowls.
Pinki produced a superb effort to leave India sitting close to the jack, but England skipper Sian responded with an even finer bowl.
Her delivery brushed past India’s shot bowl before coming to rest just inches closer to the jack, handing England the crucial shot and the tie-break 1-0.
With the victory, England secured the crucial result needed to stay in the race for the semifinals, while India bowed out of the women’s pairs competition.
With three wins from five outings, the Indian pair finished third in Group B behind England and Namibia with nine points.
Earlier Rupa and Pinki lost the nerve-wracking tie-break 0-3 against the Namibian pair of Amanda Steenkamp and Diana Viljoen after both teams won a set each in the section B match.
The Indians lost the first set 5-7 but came back strong to win the second set 10-1.
Sonowal exits ======== Putul Sonowal’s hopes of reaching the men’s singles semifinals ended after he suffered a 0.5-1.5 defeat to Malta’s Shaun James Parnis.
Played under the two-set format, Parnis dominated the opening set, racing to a 10-0 lead after five ends before Sonowal reduced the margin with two shots each in the final two ends to lose 4-10.
Sonowal put up a stronger fight in the second set. After trailing 0-4, he scored four shots in the third end to level the scores and moved into a 7-4 lead after five ends.
However, Parnis claimed two shots in the sixth end and one in the seventh to salvage a 7-7 draw.
With the first set worth one point and half a point awarded to each player for the drawn second set, Parnis completed a 1.5-0.5 victory, bringing an end to Sonowal’s hopes of reaching the men’s singles semifinals.
The win was Parnis’ third in four matches and lifted him to second place in the Group D standings behind Malaysia’s Izzat Shameer Dzulkeple, who is on course to secure the semifinal berth from the section. PTI TAP AM AM
(This story is published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. No editing has been done in the headline or the body by ABP Live.)
