The women's fours lawn bowling team from India made history by taking home a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. It is India's first medal in the sport, and the squad put on a great performance to defeat a formidable South African team in the final.

India now has four gold medals in the competition thanks to the triumph. The South Africans rallied back strongly to go ahead 10-8 after the Indians had sprung out to a sizable lead in the early exchanges, and at one stage it appeared as though the gold was slipping away.

President Draupadi Murmu also congratulated the team on twitter.

Congratulations to Lovely Choubey, Rupa Rani Tirkey, Pinki & Nayanmoni Saikia for doing the unprecedented by winning the gold medal in lawn bowls at #CommonwealthGames! Your resolve in the see-saw battle for victory in the finals made the country proud and inspired every Indian.

— President of India (@rashtrapatibhvn) August 2, 2022

Lovely Choubey, the 38-year-old "leader" of the group, is a constable with the Jharkhand Police, and Rupa Rani Tirkey, also from Ranchi, works for the state department of sports.

While Nayanmoni Saikia hails from a farming family in Assam and works in the state's forest department, Pinki, a sports teacher at DPS R K Puram in New Delhi, picked up the sport by chance during the 2010 CWG in Delhi.