India’s last chance of bagging a medal at the ongoing 20th Commonwealth Games lawn Bowls event failed on Friday after Men’s Fours team got a defeat by Australia in the bronze medal match by 15-14. With this defeat, Jharkhand’s hope of grabbing a single medal also ended, as five out of the 10 lawn bowlers belonged to the State.
However, the performance of the team was not that discouraging as on Thursday, it created history by qualifying for the semi-finals of Men’s Fours. Jharkhand’s Dinesh Kumar and Chandan Kumar Singh represented the team along with West Bengal players Samit Malhotra and Kamal Kumar Sharma.
Dinesh Kumar through an online conversation with The Pioneer before the beginning of bronze medal match said, “We will try to perform our best.”
Coach of the team, Madhu Kant Pathak who expected the team to win the bronze medal match wrote on his Facebook timeline that they had been practicing continuously for the past three months.
“Sleeping on floor during training, food at Rs 180 per day, no competition in last four years except Asian Championship in 2012, even then the players won the heart of world’s Bowling fraternity,” he mentioned on his Facebook status.
On the other hand, girls lost the game during the league matches. The name of lawn bowlers from Jharkhand included lovely Choubey, Rupa Rani Tirkey, Chandan Kumar, Dinesh Kumar and Sunil Bahadur.
It seemed a sad moment for fans of the team as well. “State lawn bowlers have to struggle a lot to reach the international level. I wish they could bring at least a bronze,” said Manisha Kumari Srivastava who along with Rupa and Farzana was the first Indian team to bag gold medal in women’s triple event in 2009 Asian Championship. Notably, all the three female players were from Jharkhand then.